They Say Newcomers Have A Certain Smell
by downwivluv
Summary: Scott worries for Stiles' safety so far from home that Argent arranges for a friend to watch over him. Yet no matter how far away from Beacon Hills Stiles is he always manages to find the supernatural, much to Scott and Lydia's dismay.
1. Chapter 1

Scott looks around the Stilinski's back yard at the pack gathered for Stiles' going away party.

Scott can't help but smile as he watches his best friend wrap his arms around his girlfriend's waist from behind and laugh at something Mason had said. Stiles looked lighter and more carefree then Scott had seen in years.

They had been best friends since their first day of kindergarten, and with the exception of Stiles' time trapped in the Wild Hunt, they had never gone longer than a day without seeing each other. Now Stiles was moving across the country to take up his summer internship at Quantico and college at George Washington University. Maybe his best friend will finally be safe.

Argent walks up next to Scott pulling him out of his reverie.

"She would have been proud of all of you. You've all come so far and survived so much." Argent says placing a fatherly hand on Scott's shoulder.

"Sometimes it feels like I've barely survived at all. I swore after Allison that nobody else dies. We've almost lost Stiles twice. I can't tell if him moving across the country is safer or if having him so far away from us is more dangerous." Scott confesses to Argent, all of his fears that had been bubbling up inside of him now finally come bubbling to the surface.

"Stiles will be fine. I'm sure he can look after himself." As soon as Argent had finished speaking a loud crashing noise drew their attention away from the conversation and over to the table that had previously been holding all of the food and drinks. The table was now broken in half with Stiles trapped in the middle of the two halves covered in food and the punch that Melissa had made with Liam on top of him. Stiles' arms waving all over the place as Liam tries to push off of him. Scott gives Argent a knowing look.

"On the other hand I have an old contact of mine who owes me a favour. I'll ask them to keep an eye on Stiles." Argent says as Scott shoots him a grateful smile.

 _Artie,_

 _It's been years since we've spoken, I don't even know if I can reach you at this address anymore._

 _I need to call in a favour…_

Stiles looks around the room at the other people entering the room and taking a set. The excitement of his first day of the pre-FBI training is radiating off his entire body, he is practically humming with excited energy. He runs a nervous hand down the front of his crisp white shirt and very his tie.

He takes a seat at one of the tables set up in the room as an older African American man enters the room walking towards the lectern at the front.

"Everybody please settle down and find a seat." He shouts out authoritatively as everyone on the room begins to scramble for a seat.

"My name is Special Agent Arthur Bell and I will be leading you over the next eight weeks through your internship. And for those of you who are also a part of the George Washington University pre-FBI course I will be your agency liaison." His dark brown eyes scan the room, looking over all their faces.

"I will call two names at a time, please both raise your hands and pay attention because they are your new partner." Bell pulls out a list from one of his many folders and begins to read of the names listed. After reading through most of the names with ease the agent pauses and struggles for a moment.

"M- Mi- My- umm…" Bell looks down at his list confusion.

"That's me!" Stiles shouts out, waving his hand in the air. "Just call me Stiles, everybody else does." There is a murmur of laughter through the room.

"Stiles Stilinski?" Bell ask incredulously. Stiles nods back enthusiastically, arm still in the air.

"Okay then… Stiles Stilinski and Diana Archer." Stiles turns to see the pretty brunet in the seat next to him raise her arm. She shoots him a small awkward small that he returns.

"Now that everyone is partnered up, please open the files on the desk in front of you and we will begin." Bell calls out from the front of the room. They spend the next few hours running over FBI procedure and conduct and what their time with them will entail before they break for lunch. As Stiles gathers up all his things before heading out to join the others for lunch Bell approaches him.

"I've heard a lot about you Mr. Stilinski. Special Agent McCall spoke very highly of you in his recommendation." Bell informs him as Stiles' jaw drops slightly, he never in a million years would have thought that Scott's dad would have spoken highly about him ever. Stiles' eyes dart over to Diana who has been hovering awkwardly next to him, he sees her raise her eyebrows and give him an impressed look.

"Thank you very much Special Agent Bell. I'm looking forward to working with the FBI." Stiles responds slightly in awe. Bell is about to respond when a pretty brunet woman with sad eyes and serious face appears in the door way.

"Art! Are you able to help me with something?" She calls put, sounding almost desperate.

"I'll be there in a moment Beth." Bell looks over his shoulder responding a soft smile on his face, he turns back to look at Stiles.

"I think you're going to be one to watch Stilinski, I'm expecting big things from you. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go help Special Agent Childs" Agent Bell calls out to him as he walks out the door to follow the woman he spoken with just before.

Stiles stands the frozen with shock. He's never had someone say anything like that to him before, picked him as the one to watch.

"Looks like I've been paired with the Golden Boy. Lucky me." Diana says from next to him.

"Come on lets go get some food, I'm craving a burger. And you can tell me all about what you have done to deserve such high praise." Diana declares grabbing Stiles' arm and leading him out of the room. Stiles just has enough time to snatch up his bag before leaving the room.

"So where are you from?" Diana asks Stiles as she sits across from him in the FBI cafeteria. Both have cheese burgers and fries piled up on the trays in front of them. Stiles watches as the girl dips her fries in the puddle of ketchup on her tray.

"Beacon Hills, California. You?" Stiles takes a large bite of his burger.

"Sappho, Washington. Family?" She says chewing on a fry.

"Just my dad, but my best friend Scott is more like a brother to me. And Lydia… my girlfriend. I still can't believe I get to call her that." Stiles says blushing slightly.

"Aw! Cute. I have a twin brother, he drives me nuts but I would walk into battle for that boy. My parents are… complicated. Most of my family is complicated." Diana says smiling fondly as she pops another fry on her mouth.

"Are you going to George Washington too or are you just a part of the summer program?" Stiles asks.

"Yeah I'll be at GWU. I'm really pumped to get started you know?" And Stiles gets it, he's really pumped too.

Scott's scrolling through his Instagram feed when he stops to look a photo that Stiles just up loaded. He looks at the photo of his best friend smiling widely and a pretty brunet girl with large dark blue eyes who looks like she has been caught mid laugh. They both look so happy and carefree, Scott hasn't seen Stiles look that happy in ages. The comment under that picture reads 'First day at the FBI with my new partner doe_bow' with a bunch or random emoji's after it. He taps the heart icon liking the picture.

Seeing Stiles like this Scott knows he's done the right thing asking Argent's friend for help. Stiles' happiness and future need to be protected.

He knew that the internship was going to be challenging both mentally and physically, but Stiles had not expected the physically challenge him quite this much. Everything ached, there was literally not a single part of his body that did not hurt. Stile was not in bad shape, having to constantly run away from murderous supernatural creature did require some level of fitness, but apparently that was not fit enough for the FBI.

Stiles lays on his bed in the dormitory he is staying in for the summer and lets out a long low groan. Diana, seated at his small desk, looks up from the file they both should be reading to prepare for the next day's profiling class to look over at her partner.

"What's the matter with you? Did you eat that funky looking sushi in the cafeteria? I told you that looked off to me." She says placing hand against his forehead to check his temperature.

"I'm not sick, I'm in pain. Everything hurts, literally everything." Stiles groans into his pillow.

"Apparently not everything. Your mouth still seems to be getting a good work out there." Diana sasses him back with an unamused look on her face. Over the past few weeks his new friend has become quite well acquainted with Stiles' brand of sarcasm and dramatics.

"How are you not hurting from all the drills?" Diana rolls her eyes at his dramatics and lets out a sigh.

"I guess I'm just fitter then you. I've spent most of my life out doors, hunting, fishing, hiking through the mountains. My mom insisted I learn how to defend myself and my dad agreed with her, one of the few things they've ever agreed on. So I've also been taking self-defence classes since I could walk. All you're doing is using muscles that haven't been used." Stiles stares at her completely unimpressed with that answer.

"I could say the same thing to you about all this!" She says gesturing towards all the paper work spread across the desk.

"You see patterns and clues and are able to work out all these cases before I've even finished reading the packet they gave us. You can read people better than they can read themselves and somehow your gut instinct is almost _always_ on the money. I don't know how you do it." Stiles looks at his partner and let out a small groan as he pushes himself into an upright position.

"My dad is the county Sherriff back home. I guess I just picked up this stuff from hanging around the station for the majority of my childhood." He says stiffly lifting up a hand to rub the back of his neck.

"Ok how about I grab you a couple of pain killers and we can get back to the homework for tomorrows class. Maybe we can work out some sort of extra training schedule for you, help you get in better shape. And you can even show me some of the stuff you've picked up from your dad. Partner."

"I think that sounds like a terrible idea. I don't think doing more exercise is the solution to my problem. I think lying down and sleeping for the next five weeks is the solution to my problem." Diana's response to wack Stiles in the face with a pillow.

"Have you ever noticed how Agent Bell has taken a creepy amount of interest in you?" Diana asks randomly one day after they are walking back from the FBI training gym. Stiles stops scrolling through local news articles on his phone to look over at his partner.

"What? No he's not!" Stiles protests, scoffing at the idea completely He goes back to his phone, looking through all the most recent articles about local children suddenly falling ill and the local hospital having no idea what the possible cause is. Stiles' supernatural spidey senses are tingling, if this was Beacon Hills he would one hundred percent assume this was all the cause of some new monster threatening his home town. But he's in Virgina now and the chance that this is related to the supernatural is probably around zero these days.

"No seriously, the dude is super focused on you. Like he is also pulling you aside after class for chats, calling on you first in our training sessions and he is always lets you in on active FBI cases and lets you sit in on briefings." Diana continues on completely unperturbed by Stiles' lack of interest in the conversation.

"Oh come on! I am not the only one he talks to, and other people get to work on active cases." Stiles shoots back at her. Diana just raises one eyebrow at him and shoots him a disbelieving look.

"Ok then, please explain to me then why Agent Bell has been watching us from his office window for the past ten minutes." A small smug smile rests on her lips as Stiles' jaw drops. He swives around wildly on the spot, his head turning every which way trying to locate where Bell is watching him from.

"Jesus Christ stop! Stop doing that! Hell I don't think being an undercover agent is in your future with your special brand of subtlety." Diana cries out grabbing Stiles to steady him.

"What you need to do is slowly turn to my, let me stress this, MY eleven o'clock and look up three windows. You will see Bell watching us. Now I am going to let you go and you will need to do this CASUALLY." Diana carefully lets go of Stiles and the boy begins to turn around to face the building to Diana's left and slowly look up. There in the window staring down at them is Bell looking as stoic as ever. Stiles casually, well as casually as Stiles ever is, turns back to face his friend with his eyes wide.

"How do you know he's watching me and not you?" Stiles' entire body is tense, he feels completely on edge now that he knows he is being watched.

"Just keep walking and try and be your usually spazzy self. And I know he's not watching me because yesterday he called me Deanna and the day before that he called me Daniella. The dude doesn't even know my name but he has taken the time to learn that Polish mess your parents named you." They continue walking across the grounds towards their dormitories at a pace much faster then what can be considered natural. Stiles decided to file the Bell issue away for late, maybe talk to Scott about it. But first he wants to pick Diana's untainted by the supernatural brain about the articles he's been reading.

"On a completely unrelated note have you seen all those stories about those kids falling into comas?" Stiles internally cringes at how unnatural that conversation opener sounded. Much to his luck Diana doesn't even seem fazed by his question.

"Yeah I think I saw something the other day on the local news about that. What was it like two kids from the same preschool have fallen into a coma, doctors can't figure it out." Stiles watches her face carefully at what he says next.

"It's ten kid, ten kids all under the age of five from the same preschool are in a coma."

"TEN!? Have they checked for a gas leak yet?" And maybe that's all it is, a gas leak but Stiles' just can't shake the feeling it's not a human problem. The fall in an easy silence for a few moments.

"Hey did you wanna know a cool fact? Did you know that gymnasium comes from the Greek _gymnazo_ that means 'to train naked'? Imagine having to train naked, gross." Diana babbles on completely switching topics, as they continue back to their rooms.

 _Argent,_

 _I apologise for the long delays between my responses but I am finding the time when I can to write to you regularly._

 _Let me provide you with the latest update on Stiles…_

Back in his dorm room alone Stiles stares down at the locked screen on his phone and has an internal debate on whether or not he should call Scott about his suspicions. Maybe he's just being dramatic. Seeing possible monsters in every shadow because a party of him misses his pack. He misses working with Lydia on his murder board and misses updating Scott on all his theories. Stiles unlocks his phone and opens his favourites to dial Scott's number.

The phone rings three times before Scott picks up.

"Ten kids, all from the same preschool, over the past two months have fallen into a coma. Doctors can find no medical reason why these kids are in a coma. Does that not sound a bit suspicious to you?" Stiles races out as soon as he hears Scott pick up.

"Hi Scott, how are you? How's your summer going? I'm great Stiles! Thank you for asking. My summer has been great so far." Scott snarks back at him.

"Ha, ha Scott. Seriously though does this sound like something… Non-human?" Stiles presses, he feels a niggling in his gut telling him that this is something more.

"I don't know Stiles. It could be a gas leak." Stiles lets out a massive dramatic sigh at Scott's response. Because seriously does nobody think that the police would have checked that first?

"Scott, it's not a gas leak. It's… Well I don't know what it is but I know the local police aren't going to figure it out." Stiles pleads his case to Scott, he needs his best friend to believe him.

"You're not in Beacon Hills anymore Stiles. There isn't a literal beacon drawing in others like us. Maybe you're just missing home, I know I miss you."

"Aw Scott! You know the way to a boy's heart." They chat for a bit longer, Stiles not bringing up his suspicions again and Scott filling him on all the gossip he's missed from home.

Five days after his call with Scott, Stiles calls Lydia. Two of the kids have now passed away and three more have fallen into a coma.

"Scott warned me of this." Lydia sighs out after Stiles launched into his theory as soon as she picked up.

"Lydia I know I sound crazy-"

"You don't sound crazy. I trust you Stiles, you're always the one who figures things out. I'm just not convinced that it's supernatural." Lydia tells him soothingly.

"What do you mean? What other explanation could there be?" He rubs a hand over his face and lets a frustrated sigh.

"It could just be human. We've been looking dealing with the non-human for so long that it's natural to jump to that conclusion right? Well what if it's just people? You once told me Stiles that I was right every time something like this has happened. And that I shouldn't start doubting myself now. Don't doubt yourself Stiles." Stiles' chest swells with pride.

"I love you." He whispers into the phone.

"I love you too. When you go snooping about, because I know you will, please be careful. It's going to take a lot longer for the pack to get to you if you get yourself in trouble. I can't lose you again Stiles." Her voice sounds strained like she's trying to hold back tears.

"Would you go out of your freaking mind?"

"You know I would."

His eyes scan over the lines of code across his screen. All the letters and number and symbols have started to blur into one. Stiles and Diana have been asked by Agent Bell to look over a computer virus that had been found on a suspect's laptop to see if they can pick up any potential information about what the intention of the virus was.

The constant clicking of Diana's nails against the keyboard feel like tiny hammers tapping against his skull. Computers were never his strong suit and not for the first time today is he wishing that he had paid more attention to Danny when he use to get him to hack into the Sherriff's station computer.

He feels his phone vibrate in his pocket and he pulls it out to read the google alert notification. After his phone conversation with Lydia, Stiles set up notifications for any articles regarding the preschool and the local hospital.

' _Local Woman Found Dead In Church 07/31/2014 11:47AM._

 _Maria Harutyunyan, 42, of Midway Island was found stabbed at St. William of York Catholic Church located in Stafford early this morning. Police believe the preschool teacher was stabbed up to ten time with a crucifix made of pig bones that was found at the scene. Local police believe the murder maybe linked with the thirteen children who have been affected with a mystery illness at the preschool Ms Harutyunyan worked at. Police are currently appealing for witnesses.'_

All the colour drains from Stiles' face, his chest feels tight and it's become hard to breath. He hadn't listened to his gut and now someone is dead. Every fibre of his being is telling him that this isn't just a run of the mill nut job stabbing people around the county with homemade animal bone crucifixes. Maria had worked at the preschool, she was openly connected so there could be no denying that is was related.

Stiles starts running through his head a list of potential suspects causing the deaths. Number one on his list is the potential of another Darach. The possibility that children are being sacrificed makes Stiles feel queasy.

"Are you ok?" Diana says breaking him out of his reviver, concern and worry marring her face.

"You've gone really pale and you're breathing funny. Do you want some water? You need to breathe Stiles!" She says sounding panicked as she riffles through his satchel for his water bottle.

His breathing is getting worse and more ragged, the last time he had a panic attack this bad was just after Argent had been taken, and then Lydia had kissed him.

"Slow deep breaths Stiles. Listen to my voice, in… out… in… out. Relax your body, your muscles are so tense. Remember slowly, in… out… in… You need to clear your mind, think of something else. You have a girlfriend right? Linda? Think of her." Diana tries to sooth.

"Lydia, her name is Lydia." Stiles wheezes out. He focuses on Diana's voice telling him to breathe in and out but eventually lets his thoughts drift to Lydia.

To be honest most of his thoughts revolve around Lydia. He wakes up, he thinks of Lydia, he eats breakfast, he thinks of Lydia, he gets dressed, he thinks of Lydia, he goes to class, he thinks of Lydia, and so on and so forth until he goes to bed and the last thought he has before he fall asleep to dream about Lydia is of Lydia.

Stiles thinks of the time Lydia dealt with one of his panic attacks on the dirty floor of the boys locker room believing his dad, Melissa and Argent were all going to die and he couldn't help them. He thinks about her soft lips pressed against his. He thinks about the look she gave him after he came back for her at Eichen House and her telling Natalie that he saved her. Stiles thinks about how she spent three months trying to find a way to bring him back from the Ghost Riders.

His heart rate drops, his breathing begins to even out again and the black spots have faded from his vision. He looks up to see Diana in front of him eyes wide with shock and worry.

"Are you ok? Have you calmed down enough? Jeez Stiles, that has to be the worst panic attack I have ever seen. Maybe you should go lay for a moment, call your girlfriend or something." Diana turns away from him again and goes back to the lines of code in front of her. He can tell that's she's trying to not crowd him and make he feel embarrassed about what just transpired.

"I might just go call her." He mumbles out before grabbing his phone and heading out of the room. He needs to hear Lydia's voice even just for a few minutes.

Three days after the murder of Maria Harutyunyan all the children that were in a coma have woken up. All a perfect picture of health with no indication that they had ever spent days completely unconscious.

Stiles doesn't understand it at all, nothing fits with his theory. He calls Scott who brushes off his concerns much to Stiles' annoyance.

"I don't see what the problem is Stiles! All those kids are awake, isn't that what you were worried about?" Scott tells him one night during one of their Skype sessions.

"No Scott! Some of them died! And what about Maria? She was clearly murdered, people just don't stab themselves with homemade crucifixes made from pig bones!" Stiles cries out waving his arms all over the place in frustration.

Lydia was slightly better but still wasn't as supportive as Stiles had hoped.

"So the problem had been resolved?" Lydia asks when Stiles called her up after reading the first reports of the children waking up.

"No Lydia, it has not been resolved! I still have no idea of who or what was putting those kids in a coma and what killed their teacher!" He exclaims loudly.

"Well I'd say being stabbed multiple times in the chest and once in the throat is what killed her." Lydia replies back coolly.

"You know I love it when you're sassy but now is not the time Lydia." Stiles sighs.

"Look at it this way Stiles, maybe it's a good thing. Perhaps someone else is looking out for the supernatural around here. Or maybe it was just a human issue?" Lydia tries to reason.

"When is it ever a human issue Lydia?" Stiles almost snaps.

"You're not in Beacon Hills any more Stiles."

The next 'strange occurrences', as Stiles had taken to calling them in his head, happened four weeks into his first semester at college.

He's leaving class when he see Diana waiting for him on a bench reading a book he can only assume is for her Classical Literature class judging by the size of it.

"Hey, I didn't expect to see you today. I thought you would be doing something with one of your new sorority sisters." Stiles greets her as she looks up from her book.

"Ugh I forgot how utterly boring Homer was." Diana says in lieu of greeting as she snaps the book shut. "I wanted to go to lunch with you and eat, like REAL food. I really like those girls but they are all way too into salads for me. I want a burger, and I feel guilty eating one in front of them." Diana loops her arm through Stiles' and begins to drag him away from the bench she was just sitting on and what Stiles can only assume is the direction of food. He's learnt go with the flow around her, Diana seems to be a dangerous mix of Malia, Lydia and Allison. All very strong willed women.

"Homer? Like Homer Simpson?" Stiles queries. He now recognises the direction they are heading towards, the Chick-fil-a.

"Yes, Stiles the great ancient Greek author and poet Homer Simpson." Diana retorts rolling her eyes. Stiles is about to shoot back a sarcastic reply when the words die suddenly on his lips. They are walking through Kogan Plaza when he spots them on the steps of the German Library. Several giant black feathers, too large to be from any bird Stiles could recognise and several spots of what looks to be dried blood. Stiles wrestles his arm free from Diana's grasp and moves closer to investigate.

"Take a look at this!" Stiles calls out to a perplexed looking Diana rooted to the spot he left her. He picks up one of the enormous feathers to show her, the feather is as long as his arm and so black it is almost devoid of colour.

"So?" The girls says completely unimpressed with her friend, her foot tapping wildly on the ground as she flicks some of her long wavy chestnut locks over one shoulder.

"Have you ever seen a feather this big before? What kind of bird could this have come from? And why is there blood here? I need to get a photo of this to send to my friends." Stiles pulls his phone out of his pocket and begins snapping pictures of the blood splatters and the scattered feathers. He hears Diana let out a frustrated sigh.

"It's probably just some leftover mess from one of the film classes shooting one of their little movies out here. Or maybe it was one of the frats doing something utterly stupid again. Because those feathers can't come from any real bird. Unless it's like a Jurassic Park situation and somebody has resurrected a giant prehistoric bird to kills us all!" Stiles looks over at Diana, who had now walked over to join him on the steps, his face completely serious.

"Could you please take this seriously? Does this not seem odd to you?" He says waving one of the giant feathers in her face. Diana pushes his hand out of the way.

"Not really. A bunch of synthetic feathers and some red corn starch doesn't exactly send my mind a racing. What is odd is someone keeping a bag of like twelve baseball bats under his bed and declaring that he has no interest in playing the game at all." Now it's Stiles' turn to roll his eyes as he tries to stuff one of the feathers into his satchel without breaking it. He should have been more careful about hiding his emergency bats in his dorm room.

"I went to the walk-on tryouts didn't I? And I'm on the team now? Are you happy?" After Diana found his bag of bats she had pestered him into trying out for the team, going as far as filling out all the forms for him. George Washington only had a women's lacrosse team and Stiles turned out to be surprisingly better at baseball then lacrosse. Joining a team had not been a part of his college plans but he couldn't think of any other way to justify owning that many baseball bats.

"Very. Now hurry up I want waffle fries." Stiles follows on behind his companion trying very hard not to crush the feather.

Stiles can't believe that the university has an actual god damn physical newspaper. Like they actually have an ink to paper, hold in your hands, turn the page newspaper. Maybe it's because college students have a thing for nostalgia but Stiles can't honestly believe it. It's 2014, don't they have an app for that yet?

The headline on the front of the paper reads ' _Does GWU Have An Issue With Rape Culture?_ ' The article goes on to detail the sudden increase in reports of sexual assaults and rapes over the past three years. The article notes that there appears to be an equal number of males and females reporting forced sexual activity. Police suspect that there may be more than one perpetrator and that they are working together as both genders are telling eerily similar stories. The victims had all being asleep in their dorm rooms, they had no drugs or alcohol in their systems, all of them describe suddenly being woken up and being unable to move or speak before being assaulted. None of the victims had be able to identify their attackers, none of the victims roommates had seen or heard anything and there were no signs of forced entry to their rooms, but yet there were clear signs of forced sexual activity. All the victims report that they had become ill in the days after the attack, taking them weeks to recover.

Stiles spoke with his dad about the rapes wanting his professional opinion.

"Son while I am very proud of you being accepted into the FBI's program, please, for the love of god Stiles don't go snooping around and get yourself kicked out. I can't do anything from here and Rafael has already pull enough stings for us. So please let the local police handle this." Stiles listens to his fathers tired and voice and he reassures him that he won't interfere. But he never promised that he couldn't discuss it at great length the case with Special Agent Bell.

Stiles waits until after the classroom has emptied from their weekly FBI training. Bell is sitting at his desk at the front of the room reading over some paperwork, his reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. Stiles grabs his satchel bag off the floor next to him and slings it over his shoulder approaching the surly looking agent. As he stands in front of the desk bouncing on his feet, Agent Bell doesn't look up. Stiles continues to shift awkwardly on the spot not really knowing how to start a conversation about a possible serial rapist.

"Are you going to speak Mr. Stilinski or are you just going to stand there and jump around like you need the bathroom?" Bell asks completely unfazed by Stiles odd behaviour, he doesn't even look up from the documents he was reading.

"Did you read that article the other day about the rise is sexual assaults on campus and the possibility of a multiple serial rapists prowling around?" Stiles has no time for tact this time around. Bell looks up from his reading, taking his glasses off, to look Stiles in the eye, mild surprise crossing his face.

"Stiles if you are thinking of doing your own investigating into this I am going to highly suggest you don't." Bell tells him calmly as Stiles' jaw drops.

"You are one of our brightest interns and I can see why this case would appeal to you. But Stiles… you are not an agent yet, do not interfere with the actual investigation. You have good instincts and you gut is telling you that there is more to this than meets the eye but butt out. And don't give me that look, McCall's notes said you had a habit of turning up at crime scenes." Bell places his glasses back on his nose and turns away from Stiles.

"I wasn't going to run my own secret investigation out of my dorm room." Stiles says almost indigently. Bell looks at him again raising a single eyebrow disbelievingly. Now Stiles really wants to know what Raf wrote about him.

"I was just wondering if you had a theory. Maybe you had some ideas about how the assailant is getting in and out the rooms." Stiles questions his mentor as casually as he can.

"Don't you have another class to go to Stilinski?" Stiles mashes his lips together in frustration with Agent Bell.

"But-"

"Go to class. And I will be keeping an even closer eye on you from now on." Bell's tone is final but Stiles has always had the determination of a dog with a bone.

"What about-"

"GO! You're friend Debbie has been waiting for you." The boy lets out an agitated huff and stomps out of the room. Diana is waiting him just outside the doorway, leaning up against the wall. She pushes herself off once she catches site of Stiles.

"Aw boo you look agitated. Are you no longer the Golden Boy?" She says giving him a fake pout.

"I just wanted to talk about the spike in assaults on campus and he warned me off from snooping around!" Stiles waves his arms all over the place to punctuate his point.

"What assaults are you talking about?" He digs around in his satchel for the newspaper he has been carrying with him since he read the article. Stiles hands her the article and she quickly scans over the article.

"Bell's right Stiles you should stay away from this." Diana says to him seriously, her face suddenly hard.

"Not you too!"

"I'm serious Stiles, you need to let this one lie. First of all whoever is doing this could be very dangerous and apparently an expert at B and E. Secondly if you compromise the investigation they could get away with it. No court would hesitate to throw out tainted evidence, and those victims don't deserve that." She hands him back the paper and Stiles nods his head silently.

"Ok. I'll back off, no more asking questions." Stiles promises his friend. "Just please be careful, I know we haven't know each other long but you're my friend and I don't like the idea someone out there getting away with this." Stiles says almost at a whisper.

"Please don't get a sappy on me! And you should be careful too, it's not just the females being targeted. Oh god let's talk about something else please! Didn't you say that your friend Scott was coming at the end of October? You should bring him to the Alpha Rho Tau Halloween party! I really want to meet the great Scott!" A wide smile spreading across her face as they walk down the hallway.

"Scott is going to love you. Mainly because Scott loves everybody, boy is too trusting for his own good. He's lucky he has me really." Diana rolls her eyes at her friend's dramatics.

"Hey I meant to ask you the other day about what you ended up doing with that giant feather I saw you pick up?" Stiles freezes for a moment, he had hoped she would forget about that.

"Ugh, I shipped it to the vet back home." He says awkwardly avoiding eye contact. Diana stops for a moment and looks at him.

"You sent the feather back to your hometown vet? You Stiles Stilinski are the strangest boy I have ever met." Stiles feels his shoulders sag with relief when Diana doesn't push it any further and sends out a small prayer to whatever deity maybe listening for sending someone like her his way.

 _Argent,_

 _Never in all my life have I ever met someone so determined to sick their noes in where it doesn't belong. Where in the fucking world did you find this kid? I mean he's a total hoot but stubborn as hell…_

The news of a double murder off campus of two students spreads like wild fire through the college. A brother and sister, Brandon and Lilly Bloom, sharing an apartment a few blocks from the campus were murdered. The attack so violent that whoever did it practically took their heads clean off. The grisly details becoming more and more embellished as the story spreads through the student body. After Bell's class that day he asks Stiles to stay back for a moment. Stiles waves Diana off after she sends him a look, she gives him a slight nod of her in return and is out the door. Bell shuts the door after her

"I don't want Daisy listening in on us." Bell says as he walks back over to where Stiles is waiting.

"Her name is Diana and she wouldn't be, she has Greek now on the other side of the campus."

"Really, Diana? I've been calling her the wrong name this entire time and she never said a word?" Bell's face looks completely horrified at the thought.

"Yeah… I'm assuming you didn't ask me to stay to chat about Diana."

"You're right I just wanted to check in and make sure that you were staying away from what we discussed the other day and that you weren't going to go charging into this murder investigation. I love your enthusiasm but now is not the time." Stiles looks Bell straight in the eye.

"I promised I would stay away and I have, I promise to stay away from the murder enquiry too." And it's sort of the truth, right now he's glad there are no werewolves in the room to listen to his heartbeat. While he may not be active investigating he has kept a scrapbook with all every article he could find about anything that happens in D.C that could be considered… suspicious. Just because he left Beacon Hills and the nematon does not mean that the supernatural world stopped existing.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as he heard a knock on the door Stiles leaped off his bed and practically ripped the door off its hinges to reveal Scott standing there.

"Dude!" Scott exclaims as soon as he sees Stiles' face, a wide, warm smile firmly in place. Stiles grabs Scott and pulls him into a tight bear hug.

"I missed you. I missed you so much. Please never leave me again." Stiles says as he squeezes Scott tighter. Scott lets out a low chuckle and pats Stiles on the back.

"Do you two want to be left alone or what?" Both boy reluctantly let go of each other to face Stiles' roommate Robbie.

"Shut up Robbie, I saw you cry when your mum left!" Stiles shouts at his roommate, Robbie just rolls his eyes and flips Stiles off before flopping back onto his bed.

"So dude what are we doing tonight? It's Halloween there has to be some party going on?" Scott asks dumping his bag on the blow up mattress Stiles had set up.

"Diana invited us to the party at Alpha Rho Tau if you feel up to that?" Stiles says rubbing a hand along his jaw.

"She's your FBI partner right? I can't wait to meet her." Scott gives Stiles one of his genuine warm smiles.

"Your hot friend's coming over?" Robbie says excitedly sitting up. Stiles lets out a frustrated groan and rubs a hand down his face.

"Dude don't be weird around her again. Like maybe tone it back… like a lot" Scott's eyes flick between Stiles and his roommate, he can smell the irritation rolling off his best friend.

I'm not weird! I'm smooth bro. That girl's gonna be eating out of my hand." Robbie says with a smirk on his face. Both Scott and Stiles wrinkle their noses in disgust.

"No. Just no. Don't talk about her like that." The disgust evident in Stiles' voice. He turns away from his roommate and pulls out his phone rapidly tapping away a message. His phone quickly vibrates with a response.

"She's going to swing by before the party so we can all get something to eat first." Stiles tells Scott looking up from his phone. They chat about Scott's classes at UC Davis and about people they know from Beacon Hills who aren't in the pack. Robbie has chosen to ignore them and has put on his headphones, the volume of the music is up so high that even Stiles can hear it on the other side of the room. Suddenly they hear a rapid knocking at the door. Stiles jumps up off of his bed and over the inflatable mattress he set up for Scott to answer it. The door opens up into the room blocking the view of whoever is on the other side from Scott.

"Oh wow you look… um… WOW… Those shorts are… short." Stiles stutters out, eyes wide. Robbie suddenly sits up a bit straighter quickly ripping off his head phones. Scott figures Diana must be at the door.

"Why thank you Mr. Stilinski!" Diana says stepping into the room all smiles. Scott can now see why her arrival solicited that kind of reaction. The young woman is dressed up in a skin tight Wonder Woman costume.

"Yeah you look really hot!" Robbie calls out eagerly, Diana's face drops immediately and a look of annoyance firmly set on her pretty face.

"Robert." With just one word Diana has been able to convey her complete and utter distain for the boy. She turns her head away from Robbie rolling her eyes when she catches site of Scott sitting awkwardly on Stiles' bed.

"Oh my gosh! You must be Scott! Stiles has told my so much about you, it's so cool to finally be meeting you." She sticks out her hand to shake his, Scott relaxes a bit a shakes her hand.

"So are you going to get changed or what boys?" Diana says looking between Stiles and Scott. Scott looks over at his best friend confused, who sends him an equally perplexed look. Is there something wrong with what they are wearing?

"Your costumes? Where are your costumes? It's a Halloween party, costumes are a must. Do you think I dressed like this for shits and giggles?" She says placing her hands on her hips.

"You should always dress like that." Robbie mumbles under his breath.

"Dude!" Stiles snaps at him. Diana just rolls her eyes again.

"I know Stiles that 90% of your wardrobe consists of plaid, hoodies and a surprising amount of red pants but you have to have something!" Scott and Stiles both shake their heads. Diana lets out a frustrated sigh.

"Ok, I think I should have some onesies in my room that should fit you. You can wear one those." Diana offers up helpfully.

"What about me? You have anything for me?" Robbie says getting up from his bed. He moves closer to Diana, wrapping one arm around her shoulder. She looks down at his hand in disgust.

"Hey Stiles, you know where my room is. Why don't you and Scott start walking on over there and I'll just have a quick chat with Robert here." Her tone is light and pleasant but there is an edge to what she just said. Stiles looks Diana straight in the eye and hold her gaze for a moment before giving a small nod and quickly ushering Scott towards the door. With one last look over his shoulder Stiles calls out.

"I told you not to be weird dude."

Scott turns to look at Stiles as they stand out in the hallway for a moment or two.

"Is she gonna be ok? Should we have left them alone together?" Scott questions his best friend. Stiles grab a hold of Scott's arm and begins to almost drag him down the corridor.

"I'm more worried about what's going to happen to him then her really. Diana can take care of herself." Scott just looks at Stiles for a moment, taken back by his friends out of character comment.

"What do you mean-" Scott gets cut off before he can finish his sentence by a loud yelp of pain coming from Stiles' dorm room. The boys turn around to see Diana exit the room, shutting the door behind her. She does a little jog to catch up with the boys.

"Come on, my rooms just around the corner." Diana says brightly as if the whole incident never happened, power walking past them. Scott stops and listens for a moment before making eye contact with Stiles.

"Dude I think he's crying in there."

"See I told you she can take care of herself."

The first thing Scott notices in Diana's room is an ornately carved wooden bow mounted on her dorm room wall. It reminds him of Allison and the ache he hadn't felt in such a long time settles back in his chest. His eyes quickly scan around the room, he notices more archery equipment around the room.

"You into archery?" Scott asks picking up what he thinks Allison called a sight off one of the desks pushed up underneath a window. Diana turns around too look at Scott as she is pulling out a large plastic tub from the bottom of her closet.

"Um yeah. I've been doing it since I was a little kid. Columbia offered me a scholarship for it but I turned them down. They think I could go all the way to the Olympics but I'm not really interested." Scott feels a hand come down on his shoulder, he looks up to see Stiles is giving him a sad look of understanding, he's never going to be able to avoid things that remind him of Allison completely.

"Ok boys! Let's see what I've got." Diana says clapping her hands together breaking the spell.

"I have a shark, giraffe, cow, I don't think you boys would be interested in the unicorn one, a dragon…" She begins pulling all the onesies out of the tub and on to the bed.

"I have a wolf one-" Both boys let out a snort at the mention of wolf.

"Am I missing something?" Diana asks raising a questioning eyebrow at the two boys.

"Don't worry it's nothing. But I think Scott really wants to wear the wolf onesie." Stiles says with a smirk, clapping Scott on the back again. The smile drops of Scott's face as he gives Stiles a dirty look.

"Ooook then…" Diana says handing Scott the wolf onesie, he accepts is gratefully.

"What else do I have… oooo I have a fox onesie! Do you wanna be a fox Stiles?" Diana asks holding up the orange and white material for Stiles to see. All the colour drains out of Stiles' face and he gets that sick feeling in his stomach that sometimes gets whenever he is reminded of that period of his life. He can feel Scott's concerned gaze boring into the side of his face.

"Um… I think I'll go with the shark, thanks." Stiles chokes out snatching up the onesie off the bed.

"You two are acting really weird. Did I say something wrong?" She asks trying to read Stiles' expression.

"No! No… everything's fine! Scott and I'll get changed and we can head off to this party!" Stiles says with slightly forced enthusiasm, punching the air, Scott next to smiling awkwardly at the entire scene.

"Right. I'll just wait outside while you two change then." She grabs a jacket out of her closet and heads out the door to wait for them in the hallway.

"Dude." Scott says, conveying all his emotions in a single word.

"I know man, I know." Stiles replies staring at the crumpled fox onesie left on top of Diana's bed. His gaze shifts from the bed to Scott, who is staring intently at the bow mounted on the wall.

"I guess no matter how far away from Beacon Hills we go there are always going to be reminders of the past."

The three of them stand at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front porch of the Alpha Rho Tau sorority house. The golden letters APT sit over the front door. The music is pulsing and the bass is making the whole house shake.

"Are we going to stand out here all night or are we going in?" Stiles says bouncing up and down on the spot trying to stay warn in the cool night air. Diana just rolls her eyes at her friend and begins walking up the stairs.

"Seriously, how are you not cold in that costume? The shorts are tiny. I'm cold looking at you." Stiles moans following her up the steps and Scott trailing close behind him. Diana pushes open the front door and all three are hit by a wall of sound.

"Hey girls look who I brought with me!" Diana bellows over the music. A group of about five girls standing near the entrance turn around to look at them.

"Stiles!" They all call out in unison.

"I'm going to let the others know that Stiles is here!" A petite Asian girl in a sexy Snow White costume pipes up before dashing off. Scott just looks at his best friend eyebrows raised.

"Who are you?" Stiles just smirks at his friend and accepts two solo cups that had been pressed into his hands by a girl dressed as Elsa from Frozen. He passes one of the cups to Scott who takes a large gulp of the cheap beer inside, knowing the alcohol is going to absolutely no effect on him.

Diana peels away from the boys mentioning something about joining some of her other friends for a game of beer pong. Stiles guides him around the party introducing him to his friends on the baseball team, people he knows from different classes and a few of the other FBI interns. A few more of the Alpha Rho sisters come up to Stiles and introducing themselves to Scott.

Scott drains the last of the beer from his cup, Stiles is now in the middle of a debate with one of the guys from his Forensics class and another girl who he met during the internship. Scott lets the others know he is going to find more drinks and asks the others if they want anything from the kitchen, they all politely decline. Scott pushes his way through the crowd of people towards the kitchen, out of the corner of his eye he catches a glimpse of Diana standing on the balcony the level above observing the entire party. Next to her is a tall willowy African American girl with a serious intense look on her face dressed as angel. Diana catches him staring at her, the look on her face unreadable, Scott smiles sheepishly and gives her a small and continues on his way.

In the kitchen he looks over the bottles of spirits sitting on the counter before passing over the keg to look through a metal trash can filled with ice and bottles of beer and cans of soda. He's trying to make a decision about whether he should have another beer even though it will be completely pointless, when he hears a voice behind him making him jump.

"You having fun Scott?" Diana asks sweetly, completely ignoring Scott's startled expressions.

"Uh… yeah, the party's great." Scott says awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

"Have you tried the punch yet? It's an old sorority recipe, has a real kick to it." Diana loops her arm through his and leads him over to a table with a fish tank filled with a dark red liquid. She takes Scott's empty cup from his hands and turns her back to him to lean over the tank to scoop out some of the liquid. As Diana bends over her hair falls over her shoulders to expose her back. Scott notices that she has a tattoo that runs down the length of her spine.

"Cool tattoo." He says accepting the cup of punch from Diana, she flashes him a brilliant smile.

"Why thank you Scott. It's the different phases of the moon. I've always felt a very strong connection to the moon and its energy." She tells him leaning in closer to him and talking in a stage whisper, almost like she is telling him a secret.

"I think I know how you feel." Scott says taking a sip of the punch. Instantly his insides feel warm. "This punch is really good. Who did you say made it?"

"I didn't. Have you met Atalanta yet? You should dance with her!" Diana says gesturing to the girl he saw her standing with before who seems to have appeared out of nowhere beside them. The strange intense look that was firmly plastered on her face before has melted away, now replaced with a kind smile. Scott just stares at the two women in front of him completely confused, his head has begun to feel cloudy.

"Um… yeah… sure… Do you wanna dance?" Scott mumbles, his mouth feels like it is full of cotton. Atalanta just gabs his hand and drags him back towards the living room area where there is a mass of bodies thrashing about to the music. Before leaving the room Scott turns and looks over his shoulder at Diana, but she's already gone.

The boys attempt to reenter Stiles dorm room quietly but fail miserably as Stiles is completely plastered and Scott is feeling very lightheaded after consuming the sorority's secret punch all night.

"Dude how are you drunk? I thought you couldn't do that with your… condition." Stiles whisper yells at Scott.

"I have no idea. All I drank was the punch!" Scott whisper yells back as Stiles finally manages to get the door open. Stiles turns to Scott placing a finger on his lips and lets out a loud 'shh' to let him know to be quiet. The boys both stumble into the room and notice that it is empty, Robbie must have found a party to go to in the end.

"Cool." Stiles mumbles before flopping unceremoniously onto his bed. Scott kicks off his shoes before sitting on the end of the inflatable mattress.

"Your friend Diana is strange." Scott blurts out suddenly, his brain to mouth filter gone.

"Scott… we're strange." Stiles retorts. Scott decides to drop the subject the subject for now, they're both too tired and he's still feeling the effects of whatever was in that drink he had.

"Night Stiles. " Scott murmurs before laying back onto the mattress.

"Nigh' S'ott." Stiles sleepily into his pillow.

 _He running, running through the preserve in Beacon Hills. Something is following him. He can feel it's presence behind him but he can't see anything following him._

 _He keeps running._

 _He can hear something moving behind him, it sounds like a galloping. He turns again, nothing._

 _He can see the nemeton in the clearing ahead of him, calling to him. He runs towards the tree stump._

 _Suddenly he feels whatever has been following him spring forward, leaping clear over his head. He stops running and ducks down, closing his eyes._

 _He hears the creature land on the nemeton, the sound of hooves clip clopping against the wood._

 _He opens his eyes. Standing on top of the nemeton is a deer with antlers of gold and hooves of bronze. The deer turns its head to look directly with bright violet eyes meeting his red unafraid._

Scott jerks awake suddenly gasping for air. He sits up, the blanket pooling into his lap. Stiles' bed is empty, a note left on top of the sheets.

 _Gone for a run with Diana. Even hung over she's still making me workout._ The note reads.

Scott lets out a huff and flops back down closing his eyes trying to calm his heart rate after waking from the dream. He understands how Lydia must feel now. The dream while simple and not one of the more violent dreams he's ever had has profoundly shaken him. Scott feels shaken, like something important just happened but he can't place what any of that dream could mean.

He lets himself drift off once again.

Stiles takes a moment to fully absorb what Scott just told him.

"So let me get this straight. You think that Diana drugged you with magical punch that made you have a very vivid dream about a deer with golden antlers and the nemeton." Stiles gives Scott a look that could be described a condescending.

"Well when you put it like that it sounds crazy but come on Stiles! How do you explain how I got tipsy? And you have to admit she's kind of… odd." Scott leans in dropping his voice. Both boys are sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the quad. While nobody is paying them any real attention Scott doesn't want to be over heard by anyone.

"First off, the girls have a habit of adding Absinth to their punch. So that stuff is pretty lethal, maybe it's strong enough to have some sort of effect on you. And secondly Scott nothing about our lives is normal! For the last three years of our lives we have been anything but normal. I think we've forgotten what it's like to spend time with people who don't deal with the supernatural." Stiles exclaims excitedly waving his arms about.

"But are you sure she not… like me?"

"Trust me in the first week of the internship I made sure to check if anybody was like you, same goes for the baseball team and all my lab partners. Everybody's clean. They all crossed the mountain ash just fine. Calm down Scott, you're starting to sound like me." Stiles says smirking.

"Ok, fine! I'll trust your instincts." Scott says putting his hands up in surrender.

"I'm just happy that your happy and that the pack is finally getting to live normal lives. I guess there's a part of me worried that this is all too good to be true and that something is going to turn up suddenly and I won't be there to help." Scott confesses to Stiles.

"Speaking of things just popping up… What did Deaton say about that feather I sent him?"

"He said it was definitely a real feather but didn't know what type of bird it came from."

"That's all he said? He didn't have any theories or ideas about what it could be from?" Stiles presses the issue further.

"Deaton said he's never seen anything like it before, as a vet and as an emissary. I'm sorry Stiles unless you get something more he can't really help." Scott gives Stiles an apologetic look. Stiles lets out an agitated huff.

"I'll see what I can find I guess." Stiles starts making plans to stake out areas around the college to see if the giant "bird" returns.

"Or you could just forget about it. It's not like whatever it was attacked anybody, it could be totally harmless. Or it could be an actual bird." Scott tries to talk Stiles out snooping around any further. Stiles just gives him a look that he's seen many times before and he knows that it means his pleas will be ignored.

"How about you tell me how you ended up joining the baseball team? I didn't know you knew how to play. I mean it's not like you were the best player on the lacrosse team." Scott asks smirking.

"Diana found my stash of baseball bats, I had to give her some excuse for having so many of them! And as it turns out, I'm pretty good at it. Maybe defending myself against supernatural monsters only armed with a bat had some benefits after all!"

As Stiles crams the last few remaining shirts into his suitcase he hears a car horn honking from outside. His phone chimes with an alert of a new text message from Diana.

' _I'm parked in a 15min spot so hurry up and get your ass down here now!'_ it reads. Stiles zips up his case and hurries down stairs to meet her. He scrolls through his favourites in his phone contacts and dials Lydia's number.

"Hey Styles."

"Hey Lyds we are about to hit the road so I will see you in seven hours." Stiles says excitedly down the phone. Lydia's course load was too large for her to take both Thanksgiving and Christmas off, so Stiles decided to spend Thanksgiving with her in Boston so they both could return to Beacon Hills for Christmas.

"Are you sure don't want to go home Thanksgiving? I know you haven't seen your dad in ages and it's not like we'll be able to do a proper Thanksgiving dinner." Lydia says in almost whisper down the phone.

"First of all Lydia, you are my home now. Where ever you are that's where I want to be. Secondly, I'll see my dad at Christmas and I'm pretty sure he likes you more than me anyway so he'd be mad if I left you all alone in Boston. And third… it doesn't matter what we eat." Stiles says racing down the stairs awkwardly dragging his suitcase behind him. He can still hear the honking of the car horn in the distance.

"I'm really excited to see you and my roommate has gone home, so we will have the room all to ourselves." Lydia purrs down the phone.

"You can't say things like that when I'm seven hours away Lyds!" Stiles cries out in frustration. He pushes through the glass door to exit the building, the case getting caught in the door pulling him back.

"HURRY UP LOSER!" Stiles hears Diana bellow from somewhere in the carpark, he looks around trying to find where her voice came from.

"Hey Lyds I better go, my ride is getting impatient." Stiles eyes scan the parking bays looking for his friend.

"See you soon Stiles, I love you."

"I love you too, bye." As he hangs up from the call he spots a single arm waving in the air and heads in that general direction. When he sees Diana hanging out of the window of her vehicle he stops and does a double take for a moment. Directly in front of him is a large black combi van with geometric deer painted in gold on the side of the van. His mouth hangs open slightly at the sight.

"This is your car?" He questions moving slowly towards the vehicle. Diana just smiles brightly and nods her head.

"Yeah, I was perfect for going on road trips, camping and chauffeuring around my brother's band and all their equipment." Diana smiles wistfully as she slides back into the van through the window. Stiles slides open the van door, placing his case in the back with Diana's stuff. He hops in the front of the van next to Diana in the passenger seat.

"Thanks for giving me a ride up to Boston, it'll save me a bunch of money on flights. Luck you were heading that way." He says pulling his seat belt across his chest and clicking it into place.

"Yeah, my brother Po's band managed to score a gig there so we thought that we'd all just crash at our cousin Minnie's place and do Thanksgiving there. Speaking of my brother he made us a playlist for the trip!" She opens up the Spotify app on her phone and presses shuffle on the playlist. The opening strains of the Dropkick Murphys 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston' start blasting out of the van's speakers. Stiles leans over her shoulder and reads the rest of the playlist.

"It's basically 90% Dropkick Murphys songs and 'Sweet Caroline' repeated five times at the end." Stiles muses.

"He is a great musician but lousy at making playlists." Diana says putting the car into drive and pulling out of the carpark.

Lydia sits on her bed in her dorm room flicking through one of her text books making notes for one of her assignments, her eyes every so often flick over to her mobile phone next to her. Stiles promised that he would message her when he arrived on campus so she could come out and greet him. She lets out a sigh as another minute ticks by with no message or call from her boyfriend. Suddenly her phone lights up and begins buzzing to alert her to an incoming call. Lydia snatches up the phone quickly to answer.

"Hello? Stiles?" She says almost breathily down the phone. In the background she can hear the chorus of 'Sweet Caroline' playing out.

"Hey Lyds we're almost there! I'll see you in a couple of minutes!" He yells down the phone trying to be heard over the music.

"See you soon!" Lydia hangs up the phone and rushes around her room tidying up what little mess there was. She quickly refreshes her makeup and runs a comb through her hair before grabbing her coat and gloves before slipping on some boots before leaving.

Lydia hears them before she see them, the roar of the vans engine and two voices just barely heard over the music yelling 'BA BA BAAAAAA!". She doesn't even have to see him to know its Stiles. The van turns around the corner and Lydia's eyes go wide and her mouth opens slightly at the sight of the Volkswagen pulling up to the curb in front of her. The engine cuts out and the music stops, Stiles swings open the car door and hops out of the vehicle, a bright smile on his face as soon as he spots Lydia waiting for him. Lydia lets out a squeal of excitement at seeing him, she runs up to him and throws her arms around him almost bowling him over.

"I'm so glad you're here! I've missed you so much!" She whispers into his ear.

"I've missed you too Lyds. Skype is really not enough." He says burying his face in her strawberry blond hair. They stand there for several moments embracing, soaking in just being around each other again. Stiles pulls away only slightly to press his lips against hers, the kiss is gentile, sweet and filled with a passion simmering beneath the surface. The sound of a loud cough from behind Stiles causes them to break apart. Standing by her van, Stiles' case beside her, looking completely uncomfortable is Diana.

"Hello! You must be Lydia, I'm Diana. It's great to finally meet you, Stiles has pictures of you everywhere and talks about you all the time. You are so much prettier in person and waaaay out of his league." She says stepping forward, arm outstretched to shake Lydia's hand. Lydia places a delicate gloved hand in Diana's hand.

"It's nice to finally meet you too! Stiles has told me you were partnered up during your internship." Lydia says carefully eyeballing the girl in front of her. Lydia would not consider herself a jealous person, she confident enough in herself not to feel threatened by Stiles having female friends but this girl is his college best friend. Diana is taller than Lydia, closer to Stiles' height and has something about her that reminds her of Allison. Maybe it's the dark chocolate tresses tumbling down in waves or her bight warm smile, but Lydia is struck suddenly how much this girl reminds her of her dead best friend.

"Yeah, it's been brilliant working with this goof." Diana says bouncing on her heels attempting to warm herself up in the crisp fall Massachusetts air.

"Look I'm sorry to love you and leave you boo but I really need to hit the road again to make it to my cousins place before dinner time. I'll text you all the deets of the gig, let me know if you're interested and if you need a ride." Diana leans over and quickly embraces Stiles in a hug before giving a small wave to Lydia.

"See you 'round. Once again it was nice to meet you Lydia." Diana quickly walks off and hops back in her van.

"See you!" Stiles calls out, wrapping one arm around Lydia's waist pulling her closer as they watch the van pull away from the curb and speed back down the road. They stand there for a few more moments, Stiles' arm around her, Lydia genially resting her head on his shoulder.

"Let's go inside, it's cold out here and my roommate has already left for the holidays so we will have the room all to ourselves." Lydia practically purrs pressing a quick kiss against Stiles lips. He just smiles at her before leaning down and kissing her again, this time with more ferocity before grabbing his suitcase and following Lydia back to her room.

As soon as Lydia had closed the door to her room Stiles had her pressed up against the door, his hands pushing he heavy winter coat off her shoulders. The coat falls to the floor with a light thud, Lydia wraps her arms around Stiles' neck pulling him in closer as his hands now skim around where her blouse is tucked into her skirt, pulling the ends free so he can slide his large calloused hands up her back.

"Bed." Lydia mumbles against his lips. She slides her hands through his hair, lacing her fingers around his neck.

"As hot as it would be to do it against the door, I really don't want everybody walking past to hear us." She moans out as Stiles presses kisses down her neck. His hands slide from her back to cup her ass to lift her up, she wraps her legs around his hips. Stiles holds on to Lydia as he turns away from the door and moves them towards Lydia's bed, carefully placing her down on top of her comforter.

"You're so beautiful Lydia. I love you so much." He murmurs as he leans down to press an urgent kiss against her lips.

"I know." Lydia whispers back once the kiss is broken. Stiles stiffens suddenly and pulls back to look Lydia directly in the eye.

"Did you just Han Solo me?" He says, jaw dropping in awe. Lydia can't help but smile at her boyfriend's reaction. In previous relationships Lydia had enjoyed having a certain power and control over her boyfriends, her relationship with Stiles is different though. Yes she does maintain a certain level power over him but he has a power over her that she never imagined she would ever feel comfortable with. Lydia may be able to make him weak at the knees with one Star Wars reference, but being with Stiles made her want to watch those movies and show interest in the things he enjoys.

"Yeah, I just did. Now you scruffy-looking nerf herder I can think of much better things you mouth can be doing rather than talking." She says as she slides her hands around his neck and pulling him back down towards her.

Lydia is sitting at her desk reading over her applied mathematics text book and making notes on each chapter summarising it, when the site of Stiles spread out across her bed texting furiously catches her eyes. He's just so beautiful and full of energy it makes her heart feel warm that this boy, no this man, saw more to her and didn't give up on her. She watches as his tongue darts out to wet his lips and his brow furrows with concentration. Suddenly Stiles breaks the comfortable silence making Lydia jump slightly as she is ripped out of her bubble.

"Did you want to go see Diana's brother's band on Friday?" He says without looking away from his phone.

"What?" Lydia responds as she clams herself for a moment.

"Diana just sent me a text. Her brother's band is playing on Black Friday at some bar called … HA! Howl At The Moon! I got to tell Scott that! She wants to know if we need a ride." Stiles still doesn't look away from his phone, she presumes he is messaging Scott to let him know about the bar's name he found so hilarious.

"Um, sure that sounds great. What are they called?" Lydia says tightly, tempering down the jealousy she feels rising in the pit of her stomach.

"What are who called?" Stiles asks her finally looking away from his phone.

"The band what's their name, and I guess Diana's brother too. We can't just keep calling him Diana's brother." Lydia quires.

"I don't know." Stiles says suddenly.

"You don't know what? The name of the band or her brother's name?"

"Either. I don't think she's ever told me his name or the band's name. She always just called him her brother or her twin." Lydia just raises her eyebrows at this in a sort of questioning surprise.

"Has she told you and you've forgotten?" Because Lydia wouldn't put it past Stiles to have forgotten the poor guy's name.

"No, I haven't forgotten. I don't think I've forgotten." Stiles says sitting up now.

"You don't find it kind of odd that she's never mentioned her brother's name?"

"Lydia, we're odd. We spent most of our high school years fighting supernatural monsters." Stiles shoots back at her gesturing wildly.

"I just think it's kind of strange that she's never told you her twin brother's name that's all. Also I find it odd how easily you've trusted her, you were suspicious of Theo from the moment you laid eyes on him." She can feel that tiny bubble of jealously begin to rise again in her stomach. Maybe she's a little envious of the girl who gets to spend more time with her boyfriend then she does and the apparent easy friendship they share. And maybe she's also a little jealous that Stiles is texting her when he's with her.

"Yeah well that's because Theo was evil, he had an evil face. Covered with EVIL! Besides like I told Scott, she can cross mountain ash." Stiles is becoming all riled up in only the way mentions of Theo can.

"Theo can cross mountain ash." Lydia retorts. She knows it's childish but she can't help it.

"Yeah well Theo is not a proper werewolf and is barely even human." Stiles is pouting slightly now in a way Lydia should find childish and annoying but really finds kind of cute.

"Look I'm sorry for bringing Theo up, I don't want to fight with you. I'm sure Diana and her twin brother are perfectly normal. Let's just go out on Friday and enjoy whatisname's band, the whatever they're called's." Stiles lets out a snort at this but does calm down and begin to smile again.

"That sounds perfect." Stiles says pressing a quick kiss to her lips.

The bar is packed with students and locals all looking for something to do over the holiday break. Stiles and Lydia push their way through crowds of people trying to find a table to sit down at. When they had arrived at Howl At The Moon they had been surprised to find that Diana had managed to get them on to the bands guest list and wristbands stating that they are over 21.

"STILES! LYDIA! OVER HERE!" They both look around at the sound of their names being called out. They see Diana over in a corner with an entire booth to herself, standing up waving to them, they make their way across the room towards her. Stiles stands back letting Lydia slide into the seat across from Diana first before following after her.

"I'm so glad you both made it! I would have been sitting here alone if you hadn't come, Minnie hates this kind of scene and everyone else I know is in the band." Diana yells over the noise of the crowd, bumping her fist against Stiles in greeting.

"Thanks for inviting us and getting us on the guest list! How did you manage to get us these wristbands too?" Lydia gushes excitedly, for all the reservations she may have about Stiles' friendship with her, she really has pulled through for them.

"My other cousin Marsden is the bands drummer and the dude looks waaaay older than he is. So people tend to believe him when he asks for extra wristbands for his friends." She replies with a smug little smile on her face as she flips some of her brunet tresses over her shoulder.

"I asked Stiles but he didn't seem to know what the name of your brother's band is." Lydia says innocently enough as Stiles shoots her a dirty look.

"The bands called Lyre Lier, don't ask he thinks he's going clever. My brother Po is the lead singer and guitarist, Marsden is on drums and our other cousin Paul is on bass."

"Your family must be really close then, that's nice." Lydia says with a sweet smile. Stiles just rolls his eyes at his girlfriend, he knows this isn't her just being nice. Lydia is playing nice to lure his new friend into a false sense of security before she attacks.

"We're all pretty tight for such a large family. And melodramatic. There isn't just one drama queen in the family, we're all the drama queens." Diana replies innocently enough. Before Lydia can begin to probe further the recorded music that had been playing though out the bar cuts out, the lights dim down more and a spotlight brightens the stage. A man in his mid-thirties walks on to the stage and taps the microphone to check if it's on.

"How's everybody doing tonight?!" He shouts into the microphone, the bar patrons respond with various positive whoops and yells.

"That's what I like to hear! Well we have a brand new act for you guys tonight! These three boys have come all the way from Washington State to perform for you here tonight. So please give it up for Lyre Lier!"

Diana cups her hands around her mouth and lets out a loud 'whoo' noise as the three band members enter the stage. At the sight of them both Stiles and Lydia's eyes go wide with shock and Stiles' jaw drops. Lydia begins to hit his chest repeatedly with the back of her hand trying to get his attention.

The drummer looked like The Rock, if The Rock was about twice as big and also took steroids. The man sitting behind the drum kit was enormous and muscular making it look like he was sitting behind a child's toy. Both of his arms were covered in tribal, Polynesian looking tattoos. For as intimidating as he looked the smile on his face was genuine and friendly, showing off his brilliant white teeth.

Where the drummer was large, the bassist was small and lean. He appeared to move impossibly quick, almost appearing out of nowhere. His appearance looked like it he would have been more suited to be in a Korean boyband, with his perfectly styled hair and delicate Asian features.

But the lead singer is what confused them the most. It was as if the universe created two completely opposite people and called them 'twins'. With his dark skin tone and warm brown eyes the man didn't look like he could have been her brother let alone her twin. His whole demeanour oozed confidence and that he knew exactly how attractive he is. Po's guitar was slung across his chest with one hand holding on to the body of the guitar while he ran his other hand through his afro as he approached the microphone.

"HELLOOO BOSTON!" Po shouts out to the crowd once he reaches the microphone. More positive cheers pour out from the happy, tipsy crowd. He looks behind him to the Marsden and gives him a nod, the drummer tilts his chin back and begins hitting his drumsticks together before the bass and guitar join in. Rock pop melodies washing over the crowd.

"Stiles. Stiles! Stiles! STILES!" Lydia hisses aggressively at her boyfriend, now grabbing at his arm for attention. "Did you know about this? Is one of them adopted? Both adopted?" Lydia looks over at Diana who is bopping along to a familiar sounding song paying no attention to the couple, not a care in the world.

"I hadn't seen a photo of him before! I had no idea!" Stiles hisses back at her looking rather distressed.

"Don't you find it kind of bazar that this girl, who you hardly know might I add, has wormed her way into your life? And for some strange reason you trust her! You instantly distrusted Theo as soon as you saw him! But you are willing to look past the odd vibes she gives off and her family of completely different ethnicities! Do you have feelings for her? Is that what this is?" Lydia says sharply with a withering gaze.

"What? No! I love you! She is my friend, I feel about her the same way I feel about Scott!" Stiles retorts back at her. Lydia lets out an undignified snort.

"I'm fairly certain that if Scott was into boys you two would have hooked by now!" She scoffs at him.

"Ok bad example. I feel about her the way I feel about Kira or Liam. They are my friends, well Liam is more like an annoying little brother, but you can see the point I am making!"

"It doesn't explain to me why you let her into your life so easily Stiles."

"When I saw Theo that first time since the fourth grade it was like warning bells went off in my head and the overwhelming feeling of dread crept over me. There was something in the back of my mind telling me that Theo was not who he said he was and that I needed to get away from him straight away. That feeling, I don't get that feeling from her. I don't understand why you don't trust her. Are you jealous?" He feels Lydia suddenly stiffen up next to him at his question.

"No Stiles, I don't get jealous. But I would like to make it abundantly clear to everyone in this bar that you are my boyfriend. So put your arm around my shoulder and kiss me." Lydia says almost primly as she takes Stiles arm and places it around her shoulders. Stiles just bites his tongue and let's Lydia snuggle in to his chest.

"Did you want anything to drink? I'm heading up to the bar." Diana yells over the music, turning around to face them having completely missed their entire discussion.

"Sure thanks. I'll have a beer. Lydia?" Stiles looks down at his girlfriend.

"I'll just have a water thanks. I have to keep working on my assignments tomorrow." Lydia replies as if she didn't have an issue with the girl.

"Cool, one water, one beer. I'll be right back." They watch her as she disappears into the crowd towards the bar.

"I'm sorry for over reacting, I trust your judgment. And maybe I am a bit jealous." Lydia says to him after a few moments of silence letting the music wash over them. Stiles chuckles slightly.

"I must be rubbing off on you. It's usually me who's the paranoid one that doesn't trust anyone." Lydia elbows him gently in the stomach in response.

"Is everybody having a good time tonight?" Po calls from the stage catching the couple's attention again.

"I just want to do a shout out to my sister Diana who is in the crowd tonight." The crowd lets out another drunken whoo again.

"This song is a favourite of hers. So this one's for you D." He begins to play a familiar series of opening chords. It reminds Stiles of a song his mom use to sing along to on the radio when he was a kid. Then he hears it, Diana's voice boom over the noise of the bar and music almost impossibly loud.

"FUCK YOU PO!"

Lydia turns to look at Stiles who just shrugs in confusion. They hear Po chuckle into his microphone.

"Love you too sis! _Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeeeeaaah!_ "Po seamlessly transitions from yelling back at his sister to singing. Stiles watches as Po looks over at the bassist who looks like he is trying to break out in uncontrollable laughter.

" _If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to His face? If you were faced with Him in all His glory. What would you ask if you had just one question?_ " There is something hypnotic about the way Po sings, there is a calming soothing quality about it that makes Stiles feel at ease.

" _And yeah, yeah God is great. Yeah, yeah God is good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make His way home._ " Stiles and Lydia are so caught up in the song that they had not noticed Diana return to the table with their drinks until she places them down harder than necessary.

"I'm going to kill that little shit when he gets off that stage. He knows how I feel about that song!" She practically fumes, tossing back her drink quickly before going back to glaring at her brother. Lydia leans in closer to Stiles to whisper in his ear.

"Aren't you glad we're only children?" Stiles lets out a laugh before pressing a kiss to her lips.

The bar is almost empty and the band is packing away their equipment on stage. Stiles, Lydia and Diana are all sitting in the booth chatting waiting for the boys to be done, Lydia seems to have finally begun to warm up slightly towards Diana. It was progress.

"Hey D, we're done here now, we'll just shove all this stuff in the van then come join you!" Po calls to his sister.

"Sure thing bro!" Diana shouts back tossing him the keys.

"So… you and your brother… well you, uh, um…. you…" Stiles stumbles over trying to approach what could be a very delicate topic. Diana lets out a sigh.

"You want to know why he's black and I'm white don't you?" Diana states almost disinterested in the entire topic.

"What? No! That's not what I was going to… I would never… Maybe just a little… Yeah… That's what I was going to ask." Lydia can't help but roll her eyes at her boyfriend's lack of tact.

"Our parents are both mixed race. One black parent, one white parent each. Sometimes genetics can mean that they have a kid with all the genes of one particular ethnicity. Sometimes it happens with twins. We're not the only mixed-race twins in the world, there are sisters in the UK like us. You can google it if you don't believe me. We did make quite a splash when we were born, made national news papers. Wasn't the best way for our dad's wife to find out about out his infidelity, or for our mum to find out he had a wife." Stiles nearly spits out his drink over the entire table at that, he ends up chocking it down instead. Lydia rubs circles on his back trying to sooth him. Before either of them could ask any more questions the band returned.

"Hey everyone!" Po says all warm smiles not noticing at all Stiles almost chocking to death, the two other boys hovering just behind him. Diana gets up from the booth to hug her brother and cousins.

"Po, Marsden, Paul I would like you to meet my FBI internship partner Stiles and his girlfriend Lydia." Stiles now fully recovered sticks his hand out to shake Po's.

"It's nice to finally meet you. You're bands really great by the way." Po just gets a smug little smile on his face and begins to run his eyes over both Stiles and Lydia.

"No! Stop it Po! I know that look. You are not going to sleep with them. Individually or together, so stop giving them the once over and get in the booth." Po just rolls his eyes at his sister and slides into the booth. As he does Diana slaps him on the back of his head.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" Po says rubbing the back of his head as Paul lets out a snigger at his cousin's expense sliding along the seat after him.

"That was for the song dickhead." Diana retorts sitting down next to Paul. Marsden had grabbed a seat from a nearby table as he was too big to fit into the booth, he sits down quietly having never said a word the entire time.

"So how long have you all been playing together for?" Lydia ask politely, feeling slightly unnerved by Marsden's looming presence and Po blatantly checking her and Stiles out. While Stiles is openly staring at the human mountain that is Marsden.

"We always were mucking about together as kids but didn't really start to get serious about it until mid-last year." Po replies stealing his sister's beer and finishing it off.

"I remember when I got you your first guitar. It was always meant to be bro." Paul chips in. Marsden still stays quiet.

"He's not much of a talker is he?" Stiles says to the three sitting across from him, jerking his thumb in Marsden's direction.

"He's more a man of action then words." Paul replies. Marsden stays quiet, his face expressionless.

Lydia watches the group chat and laugh amongst themselves for a few moments. She can't help but feel like she is missing something important. While she might have told Stiles that she trusts his judgement about his new friend and her family Lydia can't help but feel like there is something right in front of her that she can't see.

Stiles was exhausted. He had spent the last the last few weeks after Christmas searching the campus grounds looking for more of those feathers he had found. Spending half the night wondering around had not done any favours for his already admittedly poor sleeping schedule. Stiles can't help but let out a massive yawn.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stilinski, am I keep you up?" Special Agent Bell stops abruptly in the middle of his lecture to call Stiles.

"Sorry Sir." Stiles replies trying to keep his eyes open and not yawn again in Bell's face.

"May I suggest you go to bed earlier tonight." Bell says clearly unimpressed with his favourite student before moving on with the lecture again. Stiles tries to stifle another yawn subtly into his hands. Diana shoots him a concerned look.

"Are you still not sleeping? You've been exhausted for weeks and you've been extra sluggish at out gym sessions lately." Diana whispers.

"I'm fine, just working on some side projects." He mumbles rubbing his eyes. Diana looks at him concerned for a moment before rummaging around in her backpack. She pulls out a small cardboard box and places it in front of Stiles.

"It's tea, drink it a couple of hours before you go to bed and I guarantee you will have a great night's sleep." She says softly tapping the box with her nail. Stiles picks up the box and runs his fingers over the embossed letters spelling out 'Sleepy Time'.

"Why do you have tea in your bag?" Stiles says leaning over to whisper back. Diana just huffs at him in response. Stiles slides back into his chair, his gaze focused on the box of tea bags in his right hand, his leg bounces up and down at a manic pace as he bites his left thumb.

The scent of the spicy tea hits his nose as he lifts the mug towards his mouth. Stiles takes a deep gulp of the scolding hot liquid burning his tongue in the process. He isn't much of a tea drinker, in fact he's never drank tea at all, but Stiles will give anything a go once. He figures that if he drinks the tea now he'll still have an hour or so to have a quick search around campus for any more of those feathers.

Stiles blows on the rest of his tea to cool it off before draining the mug. He grabs his coat, satchel filled with supplies for collecting evidence to send back to Deaton and his phone before heading out. Robbie has already passed out on his bed with a textbook open across his chest, his roommate already use to Stiles' erratic sleeping schedule. He's decided to try the area around Kogan Plaza again since that's where he found the original feathers, hoping whatever left them is a creature of habit.

With a map in hand of all the areas he has previously covered Stiles slips out the door and begins his journey across campus. Fifteen minutes into his walk it's like his brain has hit a wall, a wave a tiredness washes over him suddenly, he stumbles slightly struggling to keep his eyes open. Stiles spies a park bench just up ahead and forces his body towards the seat. When he finally reaches the bench he lays down across it letting his eyes fall shut, thinking to himself how he'll only just close his eyes for a moment. Stiles' vision gets fuzzy but he can swear he can see a figure step out of the shadows towards him.

Stiles groans as the morning sun streams into his eyes, he shifts slightly pulling the blankets up higher and snuggling deeper into the pillows. His eyes snap open suddenly hit with the realisation that he is in his own bed back in his dorm room and not on the park bench he fell asleep on, with no recollection of how he got there. Stiles sits up noticing that the shoes he was wearing are next to his bed and his jacket and bag have been placed neatly on his desk. His eyes drift over to Robbie who is still in the exact same position he left him in last night. Stiles picks up his alarm clock, angry red numbers flash '7:02 AM' in his face. Taking a deep breath Stiles only has one thought on his mind, what the hell happened to him in the eight hours he can't remember?

 _Argent,_

 _How has this kid not managed to get himself killed yet I will never know. I found him asleep on a bench the other night…_


	3. Chapter 3

The summer is idyllic for Beacon Hills. If you consider negotiating a deal with a family of wendigo's for amnesty on the McCall packs land and assisting a mildly angry pod of mermaids who didn't want to share the lake with several kappa's who had moved in idyllic.

Stiles carefully picks up the squirming kappa and places it down gently in a fish tank filled with lake water. The kappa is no bigger than a toddler and wiggles about aggressively in Stiles' hand, not enjoying being manhandled at all.

"Scott can't we just let the mermaids deal with them?" Stiles calls out to his best friend as the kappa smashes it's little webbed hands in to the water hitting him in the face. Scott wanders over to Stiles ignoring his question, lifting up the fish tank Scott carries it over to the jeep, carefully sliding it in the back next to two other tanks containing kappa's.

"Seriously Scott why is this our problem? You're an Alpha werewolf not the supernatural sheriff of Beacon Hills." Stiles whines as he fishes around in the shallow water at the edge of the lake for another kappa hiding in amongst the reeds. Scott continues to purposefully ignore Stiles as he leaves another tank close to the water's edge for him to place a freshly caught kappa into.

Stiles looks over to his left to see Malia holding a kappa up by the scruff of its neck inspecting it closely. The creature lets out an indignant squawk at being manhandled by the were-coyote. Malia's eyes flash blue and she lets out a low growl. Stiles watches as Scott hurries over to her, attempting to defuse the situation before Malia can take a bite of the kappa for lunch.

Over to his right Stiles can see Lydia sitting on the small jetty, legs dangling into the water as she chats with one of the mermaids swimming near her feet. She should be helping the pack gather up the kappas but he doesn't have the heart to call her out on not helping. The Little Mermaid was her favourite book as a child and is such special memory with her grandmother. Plus it's nice to finally meet something that doesn't instant want to kill them all at first sight.

Out of the corn of his eye Stiles notices some movement in the water to his left just out of his arms reach. He rolls up the bottom of his jeans just a little bit further up his legs and wades out into the lake to get a better look. The cool blue water laps around his knees, providing some resistance as he moves closer to the area Stiles thought he saw the kappa in, he stills suddenly as he feels something brush against his ankle.

"Please be seaweed. Please be seaweed. Please be seaweed." He mutters to himself as he looks down slowly. Stiles notices a silvery flash of movement dart between his legs and all hope that whatever touch him was nothing is dashed. He takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself when he feels whatever it is (and he hopes it is just one of the kappas if it can't be seaweed) brush against his ankles again. Without thinking Stiles quickly sticks his hand in the water catching hold of the creature and pulling it out of the lake. The boy lets out a cry of surprise at his luck, he holds up a very disgruntled looking kappa making loud squawking sounds and snapping its little beak violently in Stiles' direction.

"Ha ha! Take that you little pain in the ass!" Stiles cries out triumphantly holding the creature closer to his face. The kappa makes a sudden jerking motion towards him, snapping its beak again this time more viciously in an attempt to bite Stiles' nose. He pulls back quickly to avoid being bitten. The kappa thrashes about wildly attempting to get free from Stiles' grip, he can feel his fingers slipping and his grip loosening as he struggles to hold on it it's scaly body. Stiles almost drops his hold on the creature, wishing that the damn kappas would just do what he wants, when suddenly he feels a sudden surge of energy flow through his entire body. He feels the warm sensation travel down his arms and legs, through his fingers and into the kappa, who immediately stops fighting Stiles and becomes placid and docile. Stiles looks down at the little reptilian monster in his hands who is blinking back at him with a blissed out expression.

"Let's not tell Scott about this. It can be our little secret. He doesn't need to know I just went all Doctor Dolittle on you and that I have no explanation for it. I am totally fine, you are totally fine, nothing completely abnormal happened at all." The kappa continues to stare lovingly at Stiles he slowly wades his way back towards the shoreline, he makes a beeline for the fish tank to finally rid himself of this damn kappa.

"Hey Scott, how many more of these damn things do we need to catch?" Stiles calls out to his best friend as he watch the kappa splash about happily in the tank.

"Er… Stiles…" He hears Scott stumble out. Stiles isn't really paying him much attention to busy focusing on carrying the now much heavier fish tank to the back of the jeep. He has gained some extra muscle mass from FBI training but he's never going to reach werewolf level.

"Do you think the mermaids- merpeople? What do we call them? Are they still mermaids even if some of them are dudes? Like do they follow the same gender constructs as we do-"

"STILES!" He hears Malia this time call out.

"What?" Stiles snaps spinning around to look at them. That when he see them, about ten kappas waddling behind him, following a quickly as their stumpy little legs will let them. Stiles looks up a bit further to see that around fifteen more kappas are emerging from the lake and are heading directly towards him. He stands there frozen, still holding the tank, as all the uncaught kappas begin to surround him, holding up their stubby little arms like scaly toddlers begging to be picked up.

"Um… Guys… A little help here would be good." Scott and Malia quickly run over to Stiles and begin snatching up the little monsters and depositing them in the jeep.

Lydia come rushing over to Stiles with a worried look on her face, pushing her way through the circle of kappa's surrounding him.

"I can't take you anywhere can I?" She says with a smirk as she gently cups his face. Stiles lets out a half-hearted huff.

"It's not my fault that I'm so attractive to the supernatural!" Stiles retorts smiling down at his girlfriend. He leans down and kisses Lydia softly on the lips. As he pulls away he notices the merperson (he's really got to find out what they want to be called) that Lydia had been speaking with staring at him with a strange intensity that Stiles can't really read, as their face is half hidden in the water, but he has a suspicion that they felt what the kappas felt too.

Pack dinners at the McCall house are usually a noisy affair. Everyone talking and shouting over the top of each other, you can barely make out what the person next to you is saying and if you're not quick enough then you'll miss out on food. Stiles has the fork stab marks on his hands as evidence to how vicious it can get.

Everyone who is currently in Beacon Hills is present for dinner tonight, Melissa and Argent are bringing in the last of the food from the kitchen as Scott finishes setting the table. The Sheriff is pouring water for everyone, Liam attempts to steal a bread roll only to have his hand smacked away by Malia. Hayden, Corey and Mason are seated at one end of the table with Argent, Melissa and the Sheriff at the other with the rest of them setting somewhere in the middle.

Stiles would never admit how much he missed everyone (Liam included in that sentiment, Theo not) while he was away at college. He feels Lydia grab his hand under the table and give it a sight squeeze, Stiles turns his head to look at his girlfriend, her eyes shining brightly at him. Lydia doesn't need to say it out loud, he can read it in his expression, she's missed them all too.

Dinner is basically a wall of sound, as predicted, and a complete bun fight for food. Scott tell everybody the kappas at the lake and how Stiles was their favourite person much to everyone's amusement. When everyone's bellies is full and the noise has died down, the adults retreat to the back porch and the kids migrate to the living room for a movie marathon.

After many attempts and repeated shutdowns, Stiles eventually concedes that they will not be watching Star Wars, any of them, the only movie all of them can agree on is Big Hero 6. Stiles takes his place next to Lydia on the couch where she instinctively curls into his side as the opening credits begin to play.

"Does anybody want popcorn? I want popcorn, I'm gonna go… make popcorn… in the kitchen." Scott suddenly burst out with, standing up suddenly and dashing quickly towards the kitchen.

"Do you need any help dude?" Stiles shouts out to his best friend, reluctantly removing his arm from around his girlfriend and making a move to follow Scott.

"NO! No you stay right there." Scott shouts back from the kitchen. Stiles flops back into his seat as he hears the beeping sounds of buttons on the microwave being pressed and the whirl of the machine starting up. He shakes off his friend's odd behaviour and focuses his attention back to the movie and Lydia pressed up against him once more.

Fifteen minutes into the movie Scott hasn't returned yet. Stiles attempts to subtly crane his neck forward to look into the kitchen so see what is taking Scott so long. He can no longer hear the microwave and he can't see Scott at all. All Stiles wants is some damn popcorn.

"I'm going to get a glass of water, do you want anything?" Stiles whispers into Lydia's ear. She lets out a soft negative hum as she pushes herself upright to allow Stiles to get up.

Stiles carefully maneuvers himself around Hayden and Liam who have chosen to sit on the floor and pads carefully towards the kitchen. He can see Scott anywhere, a full of popcorn bowl is sitting on top of the island now only slightly warm from having sat out for so long. Stiles goes to grab a glass from the cupboard he knows Melissa keeps them all when he hears Scott's muffled voice coming from the hallway. Stiles moves closer to the door attempting to hear what Scott is saying when he hears Argent's voice too.

"Look, I know you're worried, especially after what happened today, but you've read the letters. Artie's keeping an eye out, nothing's happened so far. Really it's the best we could have hoped for." Stiles' interest is piqued, Argent is using his 'dad' voice, he's more use to being on the end of his 'unimpressed hunter' voice.

"I know it's just after…" Scott sighs and lets his voice trail off for a moment. "After everything that's happened and knowing I can't always be there to stop things… I don't fully understand what happened today, and merpeople won't talk-"

"Scott, I'll let Artie know what happened today, it will all be fine." Argent placates him. Stiles hear the sound of movement and quickly dashes to the sink to fill up his glass before heading back to join the others.

Questions begin filling his head. Scott has clearly been keeping things from him, this eases the slight guilt Stiles felt about some of his side investigations back in D.C. He tries to search his memories for anybody called Artie that the pack, Argent or his dad may have mentioned before, but nothing comes to mind. The only person who name is even remotely close is Agent Bell's, he's heard other agents call him Art before, it can't be possible though. Stiles watches out of the corner of his eye as Scott quietly re-enters the room placing the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table without saying a word, taking a seat next to Malia. Stiles turns his gaze back to the television screen choosing for once to keep his mouth shut.

The week before Stiles is due to head back to Virginia he decides to pay a call to Deaton on his own. He hasn't had a real opportunity to talk with the vet about the feathers he found all those months ago. Stiles wants to talk with out Scott, Lydia or the rest of the pack around, ever since he came back from the wild hunt they have all been over protective of him, constantly hovering over him and attempting to curb his need to investigate anything suspicious he comes across. It almost like they don't even know him at all, investigating and figuring things out are practically ingrained in his personality, they all know that. Liam once confessed under duress that the packs only real plan in the end to stop the Ghost Riders was to find him and have him come up with a plan.

Stiles pushes open the door to the clinic, the bell above the door chiming out as he does. As he enters the waiting room Deaton appears behind the front reception desk giving Stiles a knowing look.

"I've been expecting you Stiles, I was wondering when you were going to come see me." Deaton speaks with his usual calm and even tone of voice.

"Yeah well, I wanted to speak with you alone and that's kind of hard to do that when there's always someone following me around." Stiles replies crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well you better come in then. I think I know what this is about." Deaton says, opening the small gate like door allowing Stiles to head in to the surgery.

"I am assuming that you want to talk to me about the feather you found." Deaton walks over to one of the cabinets against the wall and carefully takes out a box. He places the box down on the bench in the middle of the room lifting off the lid to reveal the large black feather that has been haunting Stiles' thoughts for months. Out of all the strange occurrences that have taken place on campus this is the only one he has managed to collect any tangible evidence for.

"It's definitely an unusually specimen. I've not encountered anything like it before." Deaton says lifting the feather carefully out of the box.

"Do you think it could be something… you know, supernatural?" Anxious energy is flowing out of Stiles.

"I think it's highly possible. The size of the feather is not something I have ever encountered previously but from what I know of the other world it is not improbable. Judging by how large the feather is whatever it came from would have to be somewhere between six to nine feet tall. I can't really give you much more information than that I'm afraid without seeing what it came from or even a blood sample."

"Wait, I'm sorry how tall did you just say this thing was?"

"Six to nine feet. I may have a book somewhere around here about different mythological birds that you may find useful." Deaton placed the feather back down in its box before retrieving the book from his office. He reappears again at Stiles' side handing him a thick leather bound book filled with detailed illustrations of birdlike creatures. Stiles flicks through the book, hoping something with standout to him.

"Why do so many of these things breathe fire?" Stiles asks as his eyes scan the page about the Anzû. The picture depicts a massive lion headed eagle that was simultaneously breathing out fire and water. Stiles shudders as he flips the page over.

"Well, let's hope all you have on campus is a very lost Cinnamologus," Deaton says pointing at a picture of a much smaller, more harmless looking bird carrying a bunch of cinnamon sticks in its beak. "And not one of those." Pointing at the opposite page to a terrifyingly twisted looking picture of a half bird, half woman looking creature with large black wings and the face of a tormented woman, a Harpy. Stiles snaps the book shut suddenly.

"Thank you for all you help. I was hoping you could keep our little chat on the down low." Stiles asks as he shifts awkwardly from one foot to the other.

"I won't lie to Scott for you." Deaton tells him seriously.

"I'm not asking you to, I just don't want to worry him that's all."

"I won't bring this up to Scott but if he asks me-" Stiles cuts Deaton off by holding up his hand to stop him.

"That's all I'm asking. Thanks again for the book." Stiles responds tucking the book under his arm and heading towards the front door again.

"Good luck finding what you're looking for and be careful." Stiles turns around to let Deaton know he is and that he's not the same sixteen year old kid running around the preserve looking for dead bodies any more but he's gone.

Alone and lying together on Lydia's soft plush mattress Stiles feels Lydia roll over to face him, wrapping one arm around his middle as she curls her body into his. Stiles shifts his body to allow Lydia to get comfortable as he slips one arm around her back, in his other hand is his phone.

He's idly scrolling through his Instagram feed, liking a picture every so often. A photo Scott posted of some of the new born puppies at the clinic, a video Hayden uploaded of Liam trying to teach Mason and Corey lacrosse (ending with Mason getting hit in the face), he's just leaving a comment on a photo of a sunset somewhere in the desert from Kira when he feels Lydia's hand slide over his stomach making small smoothing circles. She begins to press soft kisses up his neck.

Stiles' is just about to lock his phone and focus all his attention on his girlfriend when the next photo on his feed catches his eye.

"Oh hey look Diana got a matching tattoo with her brother! Maybe we should get matching tattoos!" Stiles says excitedly flipping his phone screen around to show Lydia the photo showing off the sun and moon tattoos on the side of the siblings hands. Lydia freezes for a moment, stopping her trail of kisses.

"Seriously, you're thinking about her, while you're in bed with me really?" Lydia says calmly with a very clear edge in her voice.

"Um, I love you babe?" Stiles asks sheepishly, shutting his phone off. Lydia plucks the phone out of his hands and places it on the table behind her. She shits her body so that she is now straddling him, placing both her hands on his chest.

"You're lucky you're cute and I love you." Lydia leans down to kiss his lips. "Also I'd like to see you get a tattoo, Scott told me you passed out when he got his done."

"God I hate that stupid tattoo." Stiles says rolling his eyes as he slides his hands up his girlfriend's back.

"Do you want to talk or do you want put your mouth to better to better use?" Lydia says lowly as she pulls her tee shirt over her head, flinging it into the corner somewhere. And well, it's not like Stiles needs to be told twice.

Lydia can't help but roll her eyes at the sight in front of her. Her goofball of a boyfriend and his best friend are standing on the Stilinski front porch hugging each other so tightly that she's unsure if Stiles can actually breathe anymore.

"If you want to make it to the airport on time Stiles we are going to have to leave now." Lydia prompts the two boys, trying to remind them why they were saying goodbye in the first place.

"Do you really have to go back to Virginia early?" Scott asks sounding like a kicked puppy.

"Yeah buddy, the FBI is kinds strict on these things." Stiles replies hugging Scott just a little tighter.

"Hurry up and finish saying goodbye to your boyfriend or you're going to miss your flight." Lydia calls out, a smirk firmly planted on her face. She would never admit it but she thinks that Stiles and Scott can be kind of adorable together sometimes, other times she feels like she is babysitting toddlers. The boys pull apart but before Stiles moves away Scott grabs his shoulders and looks him in the eye, his face becoming serious all of a sudden.

"Before you go just promise me something." Stiles stills for a moment looking back at Scott, waiting for him to continue.

"Just promise me you'll be careful please. Don't go looking for things that aren't there." There's an edge to Scott's voice, like he knows something, like he knows about Stiles' personal investigations. It's not like anything has actually ever come of his snooping or he's ever been in real danger. Stiles' has brushed off that night in January as a very vivid hallucination brought on by the tea he drank and an overtired mind.

"Scott, dude-" Stiles starts before being cut off, his eyes darting from Scott to Lydia who has been watching the entire tense exchange quietly from the side.

"No! Promise me you won't go doing anything stupid Stiles!" Scott grip on Stiles' shoulders tightens just slightly.

"I promise ok! I'll stay safe Scott. Is there something I should know about? Because you're acting really strange." Stiles' asks raising a questing eyebrow.

"No, there's nothing. Nothing at all."

Lydia holds Stiles' hand as she walks with him towards the security gate at the airport. After giving him one last kiss and saying goodbye for now, she whispers so quietly that Stiles almost misses it.

"Scott's right you know, please be safe. I don't know what I'd do without you." Stiles drops his bags and wraps his arms around Lydia holing her close. She presses her head against his chest listening to the slow steady beat of his heart.

"You're not going to lose me Lyds. You can't get rid of me that easily. I promise you I will be fine, I'm not the same dumb kid looking for bodies out in the woods." Stiles untangles his arms from around Lydia and cups her face lovingly, brushing any stray hairs off her face.

"I love you Mieczysław Stilinski."

"I love you too Lydia Martin."

Stiles lied.

He doesn't feel good about lying to Scott and Lydia but it was a necessary evil. And it's not like he dived head first into danger, it's a calculated, thought out move. Sort of.

When he returned from Beacon Hills to Quantico he honestly kept his head down. The pre-FBI training had become more intense, some people had dropped out of the program and the feds were wanting to push those who were left further to see who really had what it takes to be a part of the FBI. If they weren't in classes then they were all in physical training, if he wasn't doing either of those then he was with Diana and the small group of friends he'd made in the program, doing extra study or gym sessions and if he wasn't doing any of that he was usually asleep or Skyping with Lydia. Stiles didn't have the time to find trouble, he was too tired to.

When classes at GWU started back the work load for all his courses had doubled, this was on top of the internship too. He was still on the baseball team, somehow (he assumes the same miracle that kept him on the lacrosse team is working its magic here too). Diana still made him go for a run every single morning, plus she somehow convinced him to take MMA classes with her. He's not sure how his uncoordinated ass was persuaded to join, but he's there twice a week.

So Stiles' had stayed out of trouble, he had stayed relatively safe (well as safe as you can in a class full of burly men three times the size of him all attempting to fight him) and had kept his promise to Lydia and Scott.

But… over the last four months six people have gone missing while walking through Scott's Run Nature Preserve.

It's almost like he's being taunted. Stiles thinks that it's a personal message to him. Scott's fucking Run. Clearly whoever or whatever is doing this is sending Stiles a message.

He's been lucky this year that his new roommate has been super cool with Stiles' odd behaviour. The FBI had arranged this year for those who were a part of internship to be all housed in the same building and to be rooming with one another in an effort to foster "bonding". So Stiles' new roommate is Steven from Round Rock, Texas, who thinks the murder board is awesome and a cool way to keep their "skills" sharp. Stiles doesn't really mind Steven's input, it's nice to have someone other than Diana to bounce ideas and theories off of, but it's not like he can discuss his real theories with either of them. He can't exactly bring up werewolves without sounding mentally unstable.

Stiles has come to have accepted over the years since Scott was bitten that people view him as being… eccentric, but he can't go around telling people that he believes a family of hunters are possibly seeking out supernatural creatures in the area, luring them to the nature preserve and killing them off.

It's the only plausible theory he can come up with. Stiles doesn't want to worry the pack with his theory that there may be hunters watching all of them. Also this maybe, sort of, kind of, perhaps, definitely violated the promise he made Scott.

That's what brings Stiles here, to the middle of Scott's Run, alone at 3am on a Thursday, looking for signs of hunters and any of their victims. He's slightly more prepared this time for a hike through the woods looking for body parts, he actually brings a torch with him this time.

Stiles' has been walking around for about an hour with nothing to show for it, but he's is not about to give up yet. His Friday classes are all in the afternoon so he figures he can spend a couple more hours out in the preserve.

Looking at the map he had made marking all the last locations the six victims were seen. All in the same area, the quieter north east side, all with in a less than one mile radius of each other. None of them had gone missing during a full moon, so Stiles hopes that's a good sign. Nothing good ever happens on a full moon.

Stiles slowly moves the torch light across the woods hoping to catch a glimpse of anything really. His eyes are starting to drop as he lets out a yawn he had been trying to suppress, he feels his foot stumble over a loose rock, almost losing his footing Stiles steadies himself on a tree dropping the torch in the process. The torch light begins to flicker and Stiles hits it a couple of times against his hand to try and steady the light.

With his attention full focused on fixing his torch he doesn't notice where he is walking until he feels a strong hand grip around his left bicep jerking him back suddenly, flinging him in to the leaf litter covering the ground, dropping the torch once again.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" A voice in the dark suddenly screams at him. It's too dark to see who it is and Stiles is still slightly in shock from being flung back suddenly. He scrambles around for the torch, feeling his pockets for the knife he slipped in earlier. His heart is pounding hard against his chest, the fear coursing through his veins.

"How the hell am I supposed to keep your dumb ass safe if you keep doing stupid shit like this?" Stiles isn't registering what the shadowy figure is saying having finally found the knife holding it up in front of him and gabbing the torch and shining in the direction the voice had come from. They cry out having the light suddenly assault their retinas. Stiles almost drops both the torch and knife in shock at who his attacker is.

"Diana?" Stiles asks, his voice small and laced with shock at seeing his friend standing there hands over her eyes. How had he been so blind not to notice someone so close to him was not what they seemed? This was like Theo all over again, only worse because he didn't fucking see the danger.

"You were about to walk into a freaking fairy ring." She mummers out, rubbing the palms of her hands into her eyes seemingly having calmed down slightly.

"What?" Stiles shifts the light from his friend to the path he had just been walking. Right there in front of him is a patch of impossibly green grass surrounded by a ring of various mushrooms. The ring is made up of various mushrooms, some of the mushrooms looked like they were out of a children's fairy tale, white stems with red caps and white spots, some of the mushrooms were a deep purple colour and the others were a cream with squished in caps. A real life fairy ring. With the torch still aimed directly at the fairy ring he looks at Diana only to feel his stomach drop further. Stiles' brown eyes locked with a pair of glowing violet ones.

"I think we need to talk." Diana states calmly.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thought to go through his mind is that he's going to die, the second thought that goes through his mind is how could he have been so fucking stupid? How did he not notice before?

"Give me your knife." Diana states much calmer then what Stiles would have expected from someone about to commit murder. But then again Peter Hale always felt like he was flirting with you when he was trying to kill you, so what does Stiles know?

"What? No! Who the hell are you?" He says pulling the knife closer to his chest defensively. Diana just tilts her head back and lets out a sigh in frustration at him before moving quickly and snatching the small pocket knife out of his hands.

"If I was going to kill you, you'd already be dead, several times over might I add." She states matter-of-factly as she pulls out a handful of zip lock bags from the pocket of her leather jacket. Stiles watches numbly as Diana walk back over the fairy ring.

"Can you shine that light over this way and hold it still for a moment?" And for reasons beyond him, Stiles does. Diana drops to her knees and begins to cut the mushrooms and place them in the bags.

"Fairy rings are incredibly rare and the mushrooms from them are quite potent. An opportunity like this can't passed up." Diana stands up brushing the dirt off her knees. She walks back over to Stiles who is still sitting in frozen on the ground, jaw hanging slightly open. She hands the knife back to Stiles, handle first, and then offers him the bags of mushrooms. Stiles continues to stare at the offering in front of him, not making a move to take them.

"I got them for you dumbass so just take them!" She says as she wiggles the plastic bags a little. Stiles slowly reaches out and carefully takes the offering from her.

"See I don't bite."

"What are you?" Stiles finally shaken from his stupor.

"I sort of a hunter, _the_ hunter I guess you'd say." She says with a little snort as she squats down in front of him to be at his eye level.

"Of course you're a hunter with the glowing eyes and the claws and the teeth! No seriously what the HELL are you? Is everything you've ever told me a lie?" Stiles snaps at her suddenly feeling bold.

"Okay first of all my eyes may glow but I don't have fangs or claws. I'm not a shifter, really." Diana shoots back.

"Come on, what are you? You're not a wolf, not with those eyes. Werepanther? Werebear?" Stiles questions leaning forward, looking the girl directly in the eye.

"Werebear? Seriously? Fuck you! What I am is something older than anything you've ever encountered before. I didn't lie about who I am, my name is Diana, but I've had many other names too. Devana, Flidais, Mielikki, Dali, Skaði, Bendis, Pakhet and my favourite Artemis." Her eyes glowing again intensely.

"You're…" Is all Stiles can manage to say, once again reeling from the shock of it all.

"Yes."

"You're…"

"Yes?" Diana responds, looking at Stiles with concern.

"You're a God?"

"That's right."

"A God."

"Yep."

"Jesus Christ…"

"Wrong God." Stiles can't help but snort at her sassy response. "Diana was my Roman name. It blends in better than most of my other names these days." Diana stands up again, offering a hand to Stiles to help him up. He brushes the leaf litter off his butt before shoving the bags of mushrooms and his knife back in his pockets.

"We better get moving before the fairies notice I chopped up their ring. Those little assholes can be vicious. They have tiny little hands and really sharp nails." Diana shoves her hands in the pockets of her jacket before walking back in the direction Stiles had originally come from. Stiles watches her walk off for a moment before jogging after her to catch up.

"How old are you? Because Ancient Greece was about three thousand years ago. And you don't look three thousand years old. But I guess Kira's mom didn't look nine hundred so…" Stiles feels like he's sixteen again, full of energy and dumb questions.

"It's rude to ask a lady her age Stiles." Diana keeps walking, seemingly uninterested in the conversation.

"You're not just a lady though, you're a God. And how often do mere mortals get to talk to Gods?" Stiles' brain is whirling with questions.

"I'm about four billion years old, give or take a few million years. It all becomes a blur after a while. What else do you want to know?" Stiles stops in his tracks.

"I'm sorry did you just say you were four billion years old?" Diana turns around to look back at Stiles.

"Yes. My kind has been around as long as the earth has."

"If you're Artemis does that mean you're brother is actually Apollo? It would make sense since he's in a band and your twin." Stiles runs a hand through his hair. He's not making eye contact with Diana anymore, he's look anywhere but in her direction. The Goddess let out a frustrated huff before grabbing Stiles' arm and dragging him with her. She really does want to put as much distance as possible between them and the fairies.

"Po is Apollo or Ra or Dagr or Dažbog or whatever else they called him." Diana continues to drag Stiles back through the preserve at a pace far faster than any mortal can comfortable keep up with. Stiles being that mortal.

"Stop! Just stop for a moment, I need to catch my breath." Stiles bends over, placing his hands on his knees breathing hard. He looks up slightly and sees Diana holding a bottle of water out to him. He takes the bottle gratefully, drinking greedily.

"Thank yo- wait… where did you get the water from? You don't have a bag…" Stiles asks having caught his breath once more.

"I'm a God Stiles. I'm all powerful, I don't need to carry things with me. I don't move through the universe, the universe move around me." Diana stated pointedly.

"So if you're Artemis and he's Apollo, then who are your… cousins? Mars- OH… MARS!" At the revelation Stiles stands up straighter. "The God of War plays the drums. That's cool he has a creative outlet."

"Well he's gotta do something between wars." The Goddess says with a smirk.

"That's nice, I guess? And Paul, he's a God too right?" Stiles, still panting slightly, takes another mouth full of water. Diana lets out a sigh.

"Yes Stiles, Paul is a God. He's the messenger of the Gods and a bit of a trickster, Hermes, also known as Loki or Anansi. He was much less of a dick during our Greek years."

"Why did he choose Paul? It's not exactly… Godly…"

"Sometime during… I want to say around 48AD, he went around Turkey pretending to be Paul the Apostle. Man the early days of Christianity were kind of nuts." Diana says with a small smile and a shake of her head. Stiles opens and shuts his mouth several times, doing an excellent impression of a fish. His family has never been practically religious but there is only so many illusions he wants shattered in one night.

"You know what I don't want to know any more. I don't think I can handle any more right now." Stiles says as he takes a few more small sips of water.

"Have you recovered enough yet to keep going? We need to put as much distance between us and the fae as possible, because they are going to be _pissed_ and I really don't feel like getting into a fight tonight." Stiles nods his head at the God before replacing the cap on the bottle.

They walk side by side in silence for a few moments, the only noise is the crunch of leaves and twigs under foot and the slight breeze rustling the leaves. A millions thoughts are running through Stiles' head but one question keeps coming up again and again.

"Why?" His voice sounds loud and sudden in the overwhelming silence of the preserve.

"Why what?" Diana responds.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you here? Why are you looking out for me? There's a lot of why to why about." Stiles shove his hands in his pockets in an effort to keep his hands warm in the chilly night air. He feels the cool metal of his knife press against his skin. Diana lets out a sigh.

"There's a couple of reasons I guess. One of them is because you remind me of someone I used to know a long, long time ago. He was my friend, my best friend, my only friend really and I loved him so much. Sometimes when I look at you I see glimpses of him and I just want to protect you like I couldn't him." Diana's voice cracks just slightly and Stiles catches her wiping a couple of tears away.

"What happened to him?" His voice sounds small and wrong, but his curiosity has gotten the better of him once again.

"He died and it was my fault. But I'm not going to let anything happen to you." She turns her head to look him in the eye and Stiles can see the fierce determination written all over her face. Stiles isn't quite sure how he's supposed to respond to that.

"What's the other reason?" Stiles asks trying to rid them of the air of sadness surrounding them. At his question Diana stiffens up suddenly and looks anywhere but at Stiles.

"It doesn't matter, it's not important." Stiles narrows his eyes at her dismissive tone.

"It's important to me!" Stiles retorts exasperated.

"Just drop it Stiles!"

"No I won't just drop it! You clearly don't know me because I don't 'just drop' _anything_." Stiles scurries around so he is now in front of Diana, walking backwards through the woods in an attempt to keep up with her.

"You know if I wanted to I could crush you like a bug right?" Diana raises an eyebrow at him as she continues to march on.

"Why are you here Diana? Why are you in college? At this college? Because I don't think you had a sudden yearning for higher education." Stiles starts to poke her in the shoulder, attempting to drive in his point. Diana just bats his hand away as if shooing a fly away.

"Seriously, I could squish you and make your body disappear." Her voice is even and calm completely unfazed by Stiles' pestering.

"Bullshit." He spits the words out with far more confidence then he actually feels. Because while Diana may not looks practically intimidating he's not will to test her Godly strength.

"Maybe I thought it was time to settle down! Get a real job. Maybe I'm bored Stiles, forever is a long time." There is an air of nonchalance in her voice but Stiles' isn't buying it. A sudden surge of confidence flows through him. Stiles stops suddenly blocking Diana's path.

"Bullshit Diana. Tell me the truth." His face is hard. Diana returns his look for a moment before relaxing slightly.

"What am I the Goddess of Stiles? How did the Greeks depict me?" Stiles just stares at her for a moment.

"A huntress. They depicted you as a hunter, because you're the Goddess of the hunt."

"That's right Stiles' the hunt." The way Diana says it makes Stiles feel uneasy. The last time he got involved in a supernatural hunt he lost three months of his life.

"Let me tell you a story. In the early 1990s I spent a great deal of time living by myself in the Appalachian Mountains. Hunting, fishing, just generally having some me time. Then one day, out of the blue I receive a message from my father. Dionysus got drunk, again, and accidentally let loose the Minotaur and he wanted me to clean up that idiots mess." Stiles furrows his brow, confused. How did this conversation go from him interrogating her to story time?

"So I follow the damn trail of this stupid creature to the Rocky Mountains, but I'm not the only one following it. A family of hunters has also track it down. I'm out there in the forest, alone might I add, when the Minotaur gets the drop on me. Now it might take an awful lot to kill me, but it doesn't mean it won't fucking hurt. When suddenly out of nowhere _he_ appears and saves me ass. And unknowingly saves me from being exposed to a group of hunters for what I truly am. So I made him a promise, I would owe him a favour. His to collect anytime, anywhere, no matter how long it had been." Diana take a step forward as Stiles takes a step back.

"So when I received a letter from him asking me to look out for the best friend and emissary of the first True Alpha I've heard of in over two hundred years, I came no questions asked. I owed Chris Argent a massive debt, that's why I'm here Stiles."

That is not what Stiles expected at all.

"You're Artie." His voice is whisper quiet.

"It was a play on Artemis." She says almost defensively.

"Oh my god… YOU'RE ARTIE?" He shouts finally understanding.

"Yes I just said that! Were you not listening to me?" Diana grabs Stiles arm again and starts dragging him once more through the trees.

"Argent has no idea that you're Artemis. That you're a freaking God! He sent a God to babysit me." Stiles runs his free hand through his hair.

"I wouldn't really call it babysitting…"

"Why would he send someone to babysit me?" Stiles begins to pace back and forth, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Are we really calling it that?" Her eyes following they boy pacing in front of her.

"Argent doesn't even like me, he tolerates me for Scott- OH… Scott…" He stops walking at the revelation.

"Well a trusted emissary for a True Alpha is worth protecting." Stiles jumps slightly at the light touch of Diana's hand on his shoulder. He looks at Diana confusion marring his features.

"You are the emissary right? I can see you have the spark in you. A strong, bright spark that you seem to not know how to use." Diana slides her hand from his shoulder to his jaw lightly cupping it with her hand. Her intense gaze boring into his eyes. Stiles has no idea how to react to any of this.

It's been a very intense night over all. First his FBI partner turns out to be a four billion year old God, then he finds out Argent sent said God to watch over him and now he's apparently the emissary. Feeling totally overwhelmed by it all, Stiles stumbles back out of Diana's touch.

"Do you know how to use your spark?" She asks tilting her head to the side at him.

"No. There have been time when… when I've felt… something. But I've never really done anything with it. Once I made a circle of mountain ash, does that count?"

"No." Stiles deflates slightly at her blunt response. "But I can help you with that. Let's make a deal." Stiles narrows his eyes and licks his lips.

"You can understand why I'd be hesitant to make deals with immortal deity's right?" Diana just rolls her eyes at him.

"I'll help you with your spark, I can help you gain control over the magic in you. Teach you how to hunt too. Train you up so you have an edge, a way to defend yourself. We can work together." Stiles can't lie, his interest is peaked.

"But I have a few conditions."

"Of course you do."

"You can't tell anybody about me. It's how my kind have survived so long in the modern world." Stiles nods his head in agreement. He can understand that and it's not such an unreasonable request.

"I mean it Stiles, you can't tell your friends. Including Scott and Lydia."

"I promise, I won't say a word."

"And you can't lie or hide anything from me. I'll know if you do. We are going to be open and honest with each other, it's how we'll stay safe." He nods his head again. Stiles has never really been very good with sharing but he's will to try.

"I'll agree but only if you don't lie to me too." Stiles says sticking his hand out to shake hers.

"Agreed." She says shaking his hand. Before Stiles knows what is happening Diana is pulling him in by his arm and planting a firm kiss on his forehead. When she pulls away the place where she kissed feels warm and tingly, he touches the spot with the tips of his long fingers.

"What the-" He splutters jerking away from her.

"A God's blessing can be a powerful protection against those who wish to cause you harm."

"Sure… ok… that's a thing…"

"And if we are being open and honest with each other then I have a few small confessions to make. Do you remember just over a year ago when all those kids got sick very suddenly and then their teacher died?" Of course Stiles remembers that, how could he possibly forget a woman being brutally stabbed to death with pig bones in a church.

"Well… I killed her. She was a Shtriga and was eating the life force out of the kids." That was not what he was expecting. Completely and utterly horrifying and unexpected. He suspected a hunter just not her.

"What's a Shtriga?" It's not what he wants to ask but it's the only thing that comes out.

"It's a kind or witch that feeds of children. Remember that double homicide? The brother and sister who were basically decapitated?" Stiles has a pretty good idea where this is going, what she's done.

"That was me too. They were a Succubus and Incubus using the college as a hunting ground." Stiles closes his eyes and lets out a slow breath. Now he knows a how Scott and Derek felt when one of the pack did something monumentally stupid. His moral compass may not always point north but he's come a long way from his 'let's just kill them' days.

"Ok, first of all, don't give me the judgy face. I didn't kill them for fun, I killed them because they literally kill people to eat. It's not like a werewolf who can control their shift and urges, they can't not eat!" Diana punctuates her point was a sassy finger wiggle in his face.

"Also I didn't kill everything! Those feathers you just wouldn't let go of, came from a Harpy, and I only just winged her a bit with an arrow. Just to shoo her off you know?" Images of the twisted bird woman from the book Deaton lent him flash in his mind and Stiles shivers slightly.

"So you're telling me that you dealt with a child eating witch, sibling sex demons and a bird woman all on your own?" Stiles begins to rub the back of his neck again.

"Yes, so you wouldn't go after them on your own. I was protecting you! I also carried you back to your room after you fell asleep on that park bench. So… you're welcome!"

"I don't need protecting! I've been looking after myself perfectly fine! I can defend myself!"

"With what? Your baseball bats? News flash Stiles, you can't hit magic with a bat!"

"What if it was a magic bat?" Stiles asks almost optimistically.

"Do you have a magic bat? Do you know where you can get a magic bat? Because I don't think you do Stiles." Stiles knows he was being slightly ridiculous but he doesn't think Diana's level of sass was required.

"Maybe I do…" He says sounding like a child.

"Oh boo… you really don't. But hey how about I show you my bestiary? Will that make you feel better?" Diana coos sympathetically. This makes Stiles perk up a bit. The idea of getting his hands on around four billion years' worth of supernatural knowledge is too exciting a prospect to pass on.

"Yes! Oh my god, YES! Wait! Is saying 'oh my god' offensive to you? But yes I do want see that bestiary! Very much!" He's a ball of energy, bouncing all over the place with excitement.

"Great! Let's get out of this damn preserve and back to the dorms and I can show you. Let's go!" Diana loops her arm through Stiles' and beings to drag him through the woods.

"Wait! Aren't we going to try and save the others trapped in the fairy ring?" He tries to turn around and head back towards the ring but he is not match for Diana's strength.

"As we are being honest with each other I am going to tell you the truth. They're probably already dead." Diana is looking straight ahead, focused on finally getting out of the preserve.

"Dead? Well shouldn't we stop them?" Diana tries to ignore the twinges of guilt she feels when she hears the distress in Stiles' voice.

"One God and one human up against the entire fae realm? Pass thanks. If my brothers were here too them maybe I'd consider it but not tonight thanks." Stiles shoots a hard look at Diana's profile.

"Shouldn't we try and help?" He completely hates how much he sounds like Scott right now. Damn his best friend for being a good influence on him!

"Sometimes you can't save everyone. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself first. Fairy rings are dangerous and you need to be more careful around them ok? You're only human."

Only human. How painfully easy it is to forget sometimes and as equally painful to remember. Deciding to let the fairies go for now Stiles decides to pursue other conversational topics.

"If fairies and Gods are both real. Then what else is out there? Do vampires exist? Scott bet me ten bucks that they weren't real."

"The last vampire died out in 1900. So yes they did exist but they are now extinct."

"Vampires are extinct? How does that even happen?"

"I believe that last of the unicorns finally killed them off."

"I'm sorry did you say unicorns?"

"Yep, the natural enemy of the vampire. You know… with the inbuilt stake and all. I think I might have a horn still around somewhere."

Of course, Stiles thinks to himself, of course vampire hunting unicorns are real a real thing that existed. Why not?

The two of them continue to walk through the preserve, silence falling over them once again, and arms still linked together. They arrive back at the east entrance where Diana had parked the van and she offers him a ride back to the dorms as Stile taken an Uber earlier. When they hop in the van Diana cranks up the heating, Stiles thinks mainly for his benefit. As Stiles is clicking his seatbelt in place he turns to Diana.

"I'm probably going to have a million questions for you later once this has all sunk in, but I only have one think I really need to know right now." Diana pauses for a moment before answering.

"Open and honest right?" Stiles can see she is making a real effort with him.

"Have you seen Star Wars?" Diana looks thrown off guard by the question, Stiles feels slightly proud at being able to throw her off guard like that.

"Yes I've seen Star Wars Stiles. I haven't been living under a rock you know. In fact, I saw the original movies when came out in the cinema." A wide grin spreads across Stiles' face.

"Did you want to go see The Force Awakens when it comes out?"


	5. Chapter 5

It never snows in Beacon Hills but due to its location in the mountains, it still gets damn cold. Stiles pulls his warm woolen hat further down over his ears and pulls his coat a little tighter around his chest in an attempt to ward off the chill. He bounds up the steps to Lydia's house with a spring in his step.

This year they had both decided to come home for the holidays having missed everyone too much last year. Scott had been over the moon (no pun intended) when Stiles had told him the news.

Stiles rings the doorbell a couple of times before bouncing up and down a couple of times in an attempt to keep himself warm. He hears footsteps approaching on the other side of the door and the click of the metal bolt unlocking. The door swings open to reveal Natalie Martin, looking as elegant as ever, with a small but welcoming smile on her face. Stiles some days believes that Natalie only really tolerates his presence for Lydia's sake, that and the fact that Lydia is more willing to comes home to Beacon Hills because Stiles wants to come home.

"Hey, Mrs. Martin. Don't you look lovely tonight?" Stiles attempts the charm offensive, flashing a brilliant smile.

"Hello, Stiles. How many times must I tell you to call me Natalie?" Natalie steps back to let Stiles in and gives him a slight peck on the cheek as he passes. He must be doing something right.

"At least once more, Mrs. Martin, as always." Stiles replies with a cheeky grin. Natalie has an amused look on her face as she shuts the front door.

"Will you stop flirting with my mom or should I be worried about the two of you?" Lydia teases. Stiles turns around to see Lydia coming down the stairs, every single time Stiles sees her she takes his breath away. Some days he has to pinch himself because he can't believe she wants to be with him.

"Hey." Stiles feels no shame in how breathless and in awe he sounds.

"Hey," Lydia responds with a flirty smile on her face. Stiles bends down slightly, closing his eyes, touching their foreheads and noses together for just a moment before pressing his lips to hers. Lydia moves a hand up to the back of Stiles' neck pulling him down more, deepening the kiss.

Somewhere behind Stiles, he hears Natalie clears her throat. Stiles and Lydia pull apart blushing.

"Did you want to ride with us tonight mom?" Lydia asks as she slips her hand into Stiles'. The pack is all meeting at the McCall house for a pre-Christmas celebration and to exchange gifts.

"No thank you, sweetie, I'll drive myself. You know, in case any… emergencies occur." Natalie may now be fully aware of the supernatural world but she is still not completely comfortable with it, or her daughter's place in it.

"Ok, we'll see you there then. Bye, mom!" Lydia presses a quick kiss to her mother's cheek before dragging Stiles out the door towards his Jeep.

"Bye Mrs. Martin!" Stiles shouts over his shoulder as the door closes behind him.

"I think your mom is finally starting to warm up to me!" He says optimistically as he opens the car door for Lydia.

"She's always liked you, Stiles, it's just for a period of time you always seemed to be at the center of all the trouble. But now that she knows everything she likes you a lot." Lydia says as she takes Stiles' offered hand to boost herself up into the Jeep.

"I'm fairly certain she hated me but thank you for trying to make me feel better." Stiles presses a quick kiss on Lydia's cheek before closing the door. He lightly jogs around the car and hops in the driver's side before starting the miraculously starting the Jeeps engine first go.

STILES VS THE AKANAME

This is not what he imagined when Diana said she wanted to see his 'skills'.

The two of them are standing in front of a public toilet in the middle of the day at the deserted local park.

"Ok big boy, show me what you got." Diana says as she slaps Stiles on the butt. Stiles jumps slightly at the contact.

"I don't see the point in this at all. It's not like I've never done this before." He's not whining but honestly, he's survived a lot of shit since he was sixteen and he kinda feels like he really doesn't need to prove himself anymore.

"Yes, true, but… you've always been in a pack. This time I want to see what you can do on your own. You're rollin' solo today Stiles." Diana bends over and pulls out one of Stiles' baseball bats from the sports bag she had dumped at their feet. Stiles takes the offered bat with a questioning look.

"Do you honestly think that I bought that weak story about needing a dozen bats because you really enjoyed playing baseball? News flash, I didn't and I only made you join the baseball team because I thought it would keep you busy. Obviously, I was wrong about your time management skills." Diana places her hands on Stiles' shoulders and begins to push him towards the men's side of the toilet block.

"Is that why you made me go on all those runs with you?" Stiles asked as he stumbles slightly as he attempts to stop Diana from forcibly moving him.

"No that was because you needed to improve your fitness levels. You were surprisingly out of shape."

With one last shove, Diana pushes Stiles in the toilets. The pungent scent of stale urine assaults his senses making Stiles involuntarily recoil. He looks around the space expecting to see something, anything really that would be out of place in a public men's toilet, but he sees nothing in the dim light.

"Is it a haunted urinal?" Stiles questions, gripping the base of the bat a bit more tightly.

"Do you really believe I would make you fight a ghost with a bat?" Diana pushes past Stiles and stands in front of one of the toilet cubicles, placing one hand on the door.

"No Stiles, I need you to deal with this." The Goddess says as she pushes one the cubicle doors to reveal the creature.

Hunched over the side of the toilet is a creature the size of a child with dark mottled green skin that looked greasy to touch and matted black hair that looked just as greasy as its skin. But the feature that stood out the most to Stiles was its long, sticky tongue that was currently licking the inside of the toilet bowl like it was ice cream. Stiles began to dry reach.

"What the actual fuck is that thing?" Stiles says as he gestures to the creature with his bat, moving his other hand up to cover his mouth, he can feel the bile creeping up the back of his throat.

"This is an akaname, a Japanese yōkai. It's a sort of bathroom demon that eats filth, its name literally means filth licker." The creature looks up at them, blinking its eyes a couple of times before scurrying under the gap between the floor and the wall of the cubical, its nails clipping against the concrete. Stiles watches as it climbs into one of the urinals and begins chewing on a urinal cake.

"They're mostly harmless but can spread disease. Really they're just creepy." Diana pats him a couple of times on the shoulder before heading towards the exit.

"Wait! What do you want me to do with it?" Stiles looks at his friend, horrified at the prospect of being left alone with a poop eating monster.

"I want you to get rid of it from here, shoo it out. I don't care how you do it, I just want it gone." She says leaving Stiles alone with the akaname. He looks back over at it, still sitting in the urinal, claws firmly holding on to the urinal cake as it stares back at Stiles.

"How hard can this be? I mean look at you! I've taken on Alpha werewolves before, how hard can a toilet demon be?" The akaname just continues to stare blankly at him.

"Who am I even talking too?" Stiles mutters to himself as he pinches the bridge of his nose. Suddenly he feels something hit him on the forehead. Looking down Stiles sees a urinal cake laying at his feet. He looks back up again at the akaname as he rubs the sore spot on his forehead.

"Did you just throw that at me? You little..." Stiles raises the bat above his head, lets out a frustrated cry and begins to swing it at the creature.

xXx

Diana stands just outside the entrance to the men's toilets, playing Candy Crush on her phone. She looks up when she hears Stiles let out a yelp. A little old lady walking her dog along the footpath stops and stares at the noises coming from the toilet.

"Taco Bell, am I right? He loves the tacos but the tacos don't love him!" Diana calls out to the nosy old lady. The woman crinkles her nose in disgust before hurrying off.

"Serves you right, nosy old bag." Diana mutters under her breath before returning her attention back to her game.

xXx

Stiles emerges from the toilet half an hour later, victorious as he holds the akaname by the ankle. Diana claps for him.

"That is an experience I never want to relive… EVER." He holds the creature out towards the Goddess.

"Well done you. That was much faster than I was expecting." Diana leans in a little bit closer to inspect it, she jerks back suddenly when it sticks its long tongue out again in an attempt to lick her face.

"Now what?" Stiles asks expectantly.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I do with it now?"

"Honestly… I hadn't thought that far ahead." Diana says almost sheepishly. The look that Stiles gave her was explosive, to say the least.

Stiles parks the Jeep out the front of the McCall house, miraculously the Jeep didn't break down once on the trip over. He hops out of the vehicle and races around the car to help Lydia out. She places her hand in his, giving it a slight squeeze as she hops down, beaming brightly at him.

Lydia wraps her arm around Stiles in an attempt to absorb some of his warmth as they walk up the front path to the McCall's. Before Stiles has the chance to ring the doorbell Scott has ripped open the door and thrown his arms around Stiles in an awkward hug, with Lydia still wrapped around Stiles.

"I missed you." Scott says half into Stiles' shoulder and half into Lydia's hair.

"I missed you too buddy." Stiles is giving Scott a semi-awkward one-armed hug, patting him on the back a couple of times.

"You saw each other yesterday." Lydia's muffled voice chimes in. She wiggles around in an attempt to un-wedge herself from between Scott and Stiles.

"Such a long time." Scott whispers mostly to himself and Lydia can't help but roll her eyes at their dramatics.

"Can we please go inside? I'm freezing out here." Lydia finally freeing herself from the boys hug prison, shivers as she is now exposed to the cold.

"Dude, you are not gonna believe who is coming tonight." Scott says with a large smile plastered on his face. Before Stiles has a chance to answer Lydia cuts them off.

"Stiles where are the presents?"

"Damn! I must have left them in the Jeep. You go in with Scott and warm up with some of Melissa's hot chocolate and I'll join you soon." Stiles slaps Scott on the back and presses a quick kiss to Lydia's cheek before jogging back to the car.

Arms now laden with gifts for all the pack and pack adjacent Stiles enters the McCall home. The smell of hot chocolate and cinnamon washes over him, reminding him of Christmases past. Stiles makes a beeline for the Christmas tree in the corner of the room, placing all of the gifts carefully underneath it.

"It's nice to have you home again." Stiles looks over his shoulder to see Melissa standing behind him, holding a fresh cup of hot chocolate for him. He tucks the last of the presents under the tree before standing up to accept the offered mug. The warm chocolaty goodness sits comfortably in his stomach.

"It's nice to be home and not have something trying to kill us." Melissa gives him a look that's a mix between unimpressed and amused.

"I have not missed my house being destroyed on a regular basis but I have missed my boys." She wraps a warm motherly arm around the boy and guides him towards Lydia, Scott, and Argent who have all gathered around the kitchen island. The doorbell rings again and Melissa hurries off to answer it.

He hears Melissa greet Malia and wish her a Merry Christmas. Stiles turns around to see Malia fling her heavy winter coat off and on to the floor only to be picked up by Melissa and hung by the door. Malia stomps her way over to the Christmas tree where she haphazardly places her poorly wrapped gifts underneath.

Slowly more of the pack begin arriving, placing their gifts under the tree and accepting cups of hot chocolate. The younger member gravitated towards the living room the parents to the solace of the kitchen.

As Liam and Hayden attempt to find a place to sit, having been the last to arrive, the doorbell rings again. Stiles looks around the room, the entire pack is there. Scott springs up from his seat on the couch next to Malia and bolts to the door.

"They're here!" He cries out.

"Who's at the door? Everybody we know is here." Stiles shouts back. He looks over at Lydia who just shrugs. He looks around the room again.

"It better not be Theo… or Peter." Stiles mutters under his breath. Lydia elbows him violently in the side.

"Who's Theo?" Stiles turns around sharply at the sound of a familiar voice. There standing before him is a face he hadn't seen in years and had never really expected to see again.

"Cora!" Stiles exclaimed as he bolted from his seat with the grace of a newborn baby deer. Without even thinking about the possible consequences for his actions Stiles wraps his long arms around Cora in a firm but warm embrace. Cora stiffens at the contact but after a moment relaxes and returns the hug.

"If I knew you missed me this much I might have returned sooner." Cora jokes, clearly uncomfortable with the display of affection.

"Don't even try to hug me." Stiles finally let's go of Cora at the sound of this second, yet equally familiar voice.

"Aw sour wolf, I know you've missed me." Derek, hands stuffed firmly in his trademark leather jackets pockets, just rolls his eyes at him. Stiles throws his arms open and takes one step towards Derek before feeling a hand plant down firmly in the middle of his forehead stopping him from moving any further. Lydia clears her throat before addressing Cora.

"It's nice to see you again Cora. How have you been?" Lydia says tightly. Stiles remembers that there was no love lost between the two of them during the short time Cora had been in Beacon Hills.

"I've been ok… ok as you can be on the run." Cora responds stiffly. Lydia reaches out and takes Stiles' hand, pulling him back towards her. She wraps her other hand around his arm, a move Stiles knows is Lydia marking her territory.

"I hadn't realised that you and Stiles were so… friendly. He's never mentioned it before." Lydia's grip on Stiles' arm tightens and he winces slightly. Cora just raises a single eyebrow in amusement, the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Looks like your taste in guys improved." Cora retorts, enjoying baiting Lydia.

"Are we meant to know who she is?" Hayden whispers to Liam. The rest of the pack have been watching the scene play out in front of them. Only Liam ever really met Derek before he left town.

"Guys this is Cora and her brother Derek Hale, who I know some of you have met before." Scott introduces the two newcomers to the recent additions to the pack.

"Hale, as in… Peter?" Cory asks apprehensively, as he eyes Derek with caution.

"He's our uncle." Derek's response is curt, indicating that is all they have to say on the topic.

Thankfully before the moment could become truly awkward Melissa calls out that dinner is ready and that everybody had better get their asses into the dining room if they wanted anything to eat.

In the warm glow of the Christmas tree lights, the pack sits around attempting to recover from their food coma. Stiles watches as Malia and Cora sit close together chatting away, catching up on years of missed time together, Cory's head begins to drop against Mason's shoulder and Liam genially strokes Hayden's hair as she rests her head in his lap. Stiles' also notices Scott and Malia's interlocked fingers but decides that a conversation for another day, currently he's too full and happy to truly care.

"Who wants to open presents?" The Sheriff shouts cutting through the peaceful silence.

"Ooo! Me!" Liam shouts excitedly, waving his arm in the air and startling Hayden. The Sheriff kneels under the tree as Argent, Melissa, and Natalie join the rest of the pack. Noah begins picking up the gifts and dispersing them amongst the group.

Derek wanders over to Stiles, arms folded over his chest and a look Stiles can't properly read on his face.

"Something's different about you." Derek states almost sounding accusatory, no scratch that, Derek is always suspicious of Stiles.

"I guess I've grown my hair out a bit more." Stiles responds by running a hand through his hair. Derek just raises an eyebrow at him.

"You look different, you have a different energy about you. And you smell sort of different." Derek starts sniffing around Stiles.

"Dude, what the hell?" Stiles pushes Derek away from him.

"There's something there, something familiar I can't place." Derek pulls back, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"He smells the same to me." Malia calls out, now also sniffing the air.

"I can't smell anything either." Scott adds. Stiles looks down to see Liam seated on the floor now leaning forward sniffing at his legs.

"DUDE!" Stiles shouts, pushing Liam away. He looks over to see Lydia trying to hide her giggles behind her hand.

"Thanks for the support Lyds!" Stiles pouts at his girlfriend. "Can we just go back to opening presents?" The Sheriff just tosses Mason his gift in response. Stiles turns to look at Derek again.

"I don't smell funny. You've clearly been away too long that you can't remember my natural anxious scent." Stiles locks eyes with Derek acting a lot braver than he feels. He's worried that something may have actually changed within him. Something he can't hide and that he's not ready to share yet.

Stiles too focused on staring down Derek doesn't hear his father call his name, or notice as the Sheriff throws his gift towards him. Derek notices this out of the corner of his eye and makes a move to catch it. Before Derek can even move, Stiles lefts his arm up and catches the parcel mid-air with one hand, never breaking his gaze from Derek.

The whole room stills. Everybody's focus has now moved to Stiles. His eyes sweep over the room and the various reactions. He's fucked up.

"What?" He knows exactly what. He isn't a fool, but he can play one.

"Did he just…" He hears Mason murmur.

"Yeah…" Is Cory's awed response.

"What?!" Stiles desperately attempt to play dumb.

"You caught the present. Without looking." Derek glairs at him.

"I once saw you get spooked by a spider's web and hit yourself in the face with your bat." Malia adds, rather unhelpfully Stiles feels.

"I remember once you sneezing so hard that you hit your head on the dinner table."

"Thanks, dad."

"And we've all seen you play lacrosse." Stiles let out a shocked gasp.

"Et Tu, Lydia?" He places one hand over his heart in mock hurt. She gives him a light shove and a peck on the cheek, they miss the worried look shared between Scott and Argent.

"You smell funny-"

"No, I don't!"

"- Your reflexes have suddenly improved, something is different about you." It's in moments like this Stiles is reminded why is was scared of Derek at one point in time. The furrowed brow and stern look in his eyes, the large muscular arms crossed over his chest while he towers over him.

"You all remember that I'm still in the pre-FBI program right. Like, I actually exercise now, more than running for my life in the preserve or running for my life from Coach." He gets a snigger out of Liam and an unimpressed huff out of Derek.

"I run every day, weapons training, Diana and I take mixed martial arts classes and I'm on the baseball team! So yeah, maybe I have changed. But the change has come from hard work Derek, I don't have the time anymore for much else!" Stiles hadn't realised how worked up he had become. He's now standing up, nose to nose with Derek.

"Who's Diana?" Cora whispers to Malia.

"Diana." Lydia spits the name with venom. "It's Stiles' FBI partner and what sometimes feels like his only friend at college."

"I'm sensing some hostility there." Cora says, unnerved by Lydia's open aggression to the unknown girl.

"The point is… nothing is going on with me. I have a full college schedule, my internship, extracurricular activities and a full exercise regime to keep up with. What little free time I have is used for sleep, because I am human and tired, like ALL the time!" Derek raises his eyebrows at Stiles' outburst.

"Trust me I am not looking for trouble and I am taking the steps to keep trouble away from me. I have a pretty good indicator for this kind of stuff. I was the only one who suspected Theo of being evil!"

"Theo isn't that evil anymore." Liam whispers to himself, earning him confused looks from Hayden and Mason.

"You're really not snooping around Washington trying to prove that all politician are like lizard people?" Malia looks at him skeptically. Stiles can see the resemblance between Malia and her cousins' right at this moment and it's honestly freaking him out slightly.

"YES!" Stiles shouts, throwing his arms in the air.

"Sounds fake, but ok." He lets out another frustrated groan. Everyone is looking at him like they don't believe him, Stiles wishes he was a better liar because they're not wrong. He just wishes that his friends would trust him, even if they're not wrong. Stiles doesn't blame his dad or Melissa for not believing his bullshit, they did raise him after all.

"How about I make us all some more hot cocoa and we keep unwrapping our gifts because it's Christmas and we're all going to be happy dammit!" Melissa claps her hands together in an attempt to lift the mood again. The Sheriff just gives her a slight nod before she slips off to the kitchen taking Natalie with her, he hands Argent his gift and continues on as if the whole outburst never occurred.

Stiles peels always from Derek, who looks as if he is chewing glass, joining Lydia again on the couch. Lydia scoots closer to Stiles, snuggling into his side.

"I believe you." She whispers into his ear, so low he doesn't think the wolves could hear her.

"No, you don't. But thank you for saying it anyway." He looks at his girlfriend and smiles sadly at her. Lydia gives his arm a squeeze.

"I think that's the last one." His dad says finally, making a move to stand up from his spot next to the tree.

"No, it's not." Cory calls out. "I can see one more. At the very back, tucked in the corner." He points at a long box, barely visible through the branches of the tree, pushed up against the wall.

The Sheriff gets down again and pulls the hidden present out from under the tree. He searches for a name tag on the box.

"It's for you Stiles." He says finally, carefully handing over the gift. Stiles takes the box from his father, surprised by the weight of it. He lifts the lid to find a neatly handwritten note placed on top of some tissue paper. Stiles reads the note and can't help but snort.

' _Don't be a malaka with it. Enjoy your heathen holiday boo.'_

He moves the tissue paper aside to reveal a silver baseball bat.

STILES VS THE JINN/DJINN/GENIE

Stiles goes flying across the abandoned warehouse, crashing into a pile of crates on the other side of the room he had been originally standing on.

"You're doing great boo!" Diana shouts out encouraging for somewhere he can't see.

"Really? Because it doesn't feel like it!" Stiles snaps back as picks himself up off the ground. His back is going to hurt him tomorrow. He reaches down to his ankle and pulls out the ornate jewelled dagger Diana had gifted to him before.

"Well, you are! Just remember to stay focused!" Stiles looks up to see the jinn walking towards him his eyes flickering towards his hand.

When Diana had told him they were going to catch a jinn Stiles had imagined something that resembled the genie from Aladdin. You know, harem pants and a ponytail, blue skin, all the stereotypical things you picture a genie to look like. What he did not expect was a middle-aged white man in an expensive suit, who Stiles is about 98% sure is currently the minority whip in the House of Representatives. Stiles isn't surprised that the supernatural that infiltrated politics.

"Come on now young man. I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement, do we really need to fight?" Stiles can't help but roll his eyes at the jinn. It talks like a politician.

"I could give you anything you want kid! Do you know what kind of power I could give you? All you have to do it get rid of the knife…" Stiles just glares at the jinn.

"Do you seriously think I am going to get rid of my only form of defence?" The jinn only glowers back in response.

"Don't be stupid boy. You can't stop me, you're only human!" The jinn continues to move towards Stiles at a slow lazy pace. Stiles keeps a firm grip on the knife, the large jewels digging into the palm of his hand.

"I was born of smokeless fire! My kind roamed the Earth before your kind had even dragged themselves out of the swamp! YOU CAN'T STOP ME! NOTHING CAN STOP ME!" Its voice booms across the near-empty warehouse causing the place to shake slightly.

"Remember what I told you Stiles. Remember all the preparation we did!" Diana's voice sounds so soft and delicate compared to the jinn's. What Stiles remembers is Diana walking up to him in the library, tossing a copy of One Thousand and One Nights on the table and whispering 'Ever trapped a jinn?' before handing him the dagger and dragging him out of the library. The only research Stiles had managed was a quick Wikipedia search and a skim of the book she has tossed at him earlier.

"NO!" He flails his arms about in frustration. Diana has taken to calling them his 'Muppet arms'.

"Seriously? The conversation we had right before we got here, remember?" He voice echoes around the warehouse. Stiles let out a huff of frustration casting his mind back in an attempt to remember anything useful the Goddess may have told him.

' _Only use the knife to injure, not kill. We don't want to damage the meat-suit too badly. Just remember jinn are basically one step down from demons, so it is possible to trap them in mountain ash or even a devil's trap would work but I don't think we're going to have enough time for that…'_

"MOUNTAIN ASH!" Stiles cries out suddenly startling the jinn. He feels slightly stupid for forgetting the easiest and simplest defence trick in the supernatural book. It's basically like shouting 'expelliarmus', except there's no wand or magic, just a handful of ash.

Stiles digs his hand into his pocket, pulling out a corked test tube filled with mountain ash, one of the many supplies he'd taken to carrying around in easy to access containers. He rips out the cork, throwing the ash in the air, casting a perfect circle around himself and the jinn who has become uncomfortably close.

The jinn looks at the ground confused, reaching one hand out to touch the barrier, the creature pulls back its hand scowling at the slight shock.

"What have you done? What is this?" The jinn bellows, reaching one arm out to take a swipe at Stiles. Before the jinn can touch him, Stiles feels a firm grip yank him back suddenly. He lands on the ground gracelessly.

"Take note for next time. When you trap something that wants to hurt you, don't stay in the trap with them." Stiles groans as he picks himself up off the ground, shooting daggers in Diana's direction.

"So what do we do now?" Stiles runs a hand through his hair as he watched the jinn furiously pounds its hands against the mountain ash barrier.

"We need to exorcise the jinn out of the body and into…" Diana rummages around in the coat pocket for a moment before pulling out a plastic Coke bottle. "…this bottle." She holds the plastic bottle out for Stiles to take. Stiles looks at the offending object unimpressed.

"We're going to trap it in that really? I thought genie lamps and bottles were meant to look more impres- wait… Did you just say we need to perform an exorcism? Like, as in pea soup, head spinning, this guy is not in control of his body, exorcism?" His eyes are wild and frantic, his voice becoming louder and louder with each word.

"Jinn don't have their own physical form. They gain control of human bodies and basically control them like puppets. So yes, we need to perform an exorcism to remove the jinn, hopefully, it won't be anything like The Exorcism." Diana states as she watches the jinn pace back and forth, like a caged lion.

"Is he still awake in there?" His voice has become very small and fragile again. Diana's brow creasing in concern.

"I'm not sure… Are you ok? You look a bit peaky." Diana places a hand gently on his arm in concern. Stiles closes his eyes, swallowing the lump that has formed in the back of his thought, he takes several slow deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth. When he finally relaxes he feels the tension leaves his shoulders he feels a dull ache in his muscles from how tightly he had been tensing.

"Just brings back some bad memories." Stiles opens his eyes to see Diana's concerned look. Out of the corner of his eye, Stiles can see that the jinn has now stopped pacing, a smirk plastered across its face.

"I think what the kid is trying to say is he has some firsthand experience." Diana shoots the jinn a withering glare.

"Keep out of it genie!" She snaps, rolling her eyes. The jinn just raises his hands in a sign of mock surrender. Diana's demeanour softens again when she addresses' Stiles.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I know it can be difficult to talk about." Stiles looks into Diana's eyes before quickly looking away again. Everything feels too intense.

"What's there to talk about? I'm better now and the nogitsune is-" Stiles stops when he senses Diana and the jinn both freeze and tense up. He looks up to meet her eyes again, now wide with shock, even the jinn is looking at him in awe. Stiles swears he hears the creature whisper 'Yako' before taking a step back from the edge of the mountain ash circle.

"I'm sorry boo, did you just say that you were possessed by a nogitsune? And lived?" She asks the questions cautiously, almost as if she is scared to offend him. Stiles rubs the back of his neck out of habit at the uncomfortable situation.

"Yes?" Stiles shifts his weight from one foot to the other. The awkward energy heavy in the air.

"Is that a question or an answer?" Diana places both her hands on her hips and fixes him with a no-nonsense stare.

"Both? I don't understand what the big deal is! I'm fine! 100% fox free!"

"Ok look, we will come back to this later. Because there is WAY too much to unpack right now but… Stiles, I've never met anyone who has ever survived nogitsune possession. If they don't die then they are usually left a complete vegetable." Stiles feels his face heat up and he doesn't know where to look.

"I think that spark is more powerful than we both realised." She places a comforting hand on his face, cupping his chin. A gesture that reminds Stiles of something his mother or Melissa would do. Stiles meets her gaze again, now with a look of steely determination.

"Alright then!" Diana says with a small clap of her hands. "How's your Arabic?"

"Completely non-existent." Stiles thinks to himself that if Lydia was here right now then she would probably know Arabic.

"Great! Brace yourself." It's all the warning Diana give him before she places the palm of her hand on his forehead. Stiles feels a sudden sharp pain fill his skull, the pain is crippling and makes him feel nauseous, as quickly as the pain began it ends. He doubles over, letting out a loud moan.

"You didn't brace yourself." Stiles tries to muster up the most withering look possible but only manages to look constipated.

"What did you do to me?" He groans, standing upright again.

"I gave you a gift! The gift of languages. And unlike my brother, my gifts do not come with the condition of you having to sleep with me."

"How kind of you."

"What the HELL are the two of you?" They both turn their heads to look at the jinn, who Stiles had completely forgotten about there for a moment. The jinn is now on the furthest side of the mountain ash circle, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the pair. The Goddess just smirks at the jinn, which seems to strike enough fear into the creature to shut it up.

Diana casually slides her eyes back to look at Stiles, she hands him a small, leather-bound book. The leather on the front is old a cracked and the spine shows the wear and tear for years of use. Stiles takes the book from her and flipping it open to the bookmarked spot. He runs his fingers over the pages, feeling the smooth texture of the paper, tracing around the elaborate hand-drawn pictures done in brightly coloured inks. Stiles feels an energy hum on the pages that seem to be soaked through his fingers.

"What do I have to do?" Stiles finally asks ripping his eyes away from the book. Diana presses the Coke bottle into the hand with the dagger in it.

"First you need to get some of its blood in the bottle. Then you just need to read what is written on that page I marked for you. After that, I would highly recommend putting the cap back on the bottle. We can discuss a safe location to store him after."

"I'm sorry did you say blood?" Stiles asks, completely thrown by Diana's blasé attitude. He looks back over to the jinn, who is now desperately throwing himself against the mountain ash barrier in a desperate attempt to escape.

"You only need to stab him a little bit." Diana brings her thumb and forefinger close together.

"I CAN HEAR YOU!" The jinn screams slamming his body again against the impenetrable ring of ash. Stiles just rolls his eyes at the creature.

"Hey bud, we really don't care. So you just shut your cakehole, 'k?" Stiles snarks out harshly. It's been a long night and he has class in the morning, now there's a mouthy jinn he apparently needs to perform an exorcism on. And blood, they need blood.

"Looks like Mr. Sassy Pants finally showed up to the party." Stiles chooses to ignore Diana as he steps over the mountain ash. The jinn moves awkwardly as if he is preparing to run for it at any moment. Stiles let himself revel in the shift in power for a hot second, only moments ago had the jinn thrown him halfway across the room, now the same creature was attempting to get away from him.

He pockets the book and transfers the empty plastic Coke bottle to his now free hand, the weight of the knife suddenly more notable.

"Do we really need its blood? I mean, is it really even its blood since he's possessing this guy and all?" Stiles swallows hard, he's come leaps and bounds with his little fainting at the sight of blood issue, but he still feels nauseous at the thought of collecting blood.

"Jinn possession leaves residue in the blood it's like a little calling card linking back to the jinn. Magic and blood have gone hand and hand since the dawn of time Stiles. Now just cut the fucker." Diana darkly spits out.

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" If the jinn wasn't currently possessing the body of a sixty-something-year-old, slightly overweight politician, Stiles would have sworn they were dealing with a whining teenager.

"Then come over here and shut us up then!" Stiles whips around to look at Diana, who is currently staring down the jinn with a smug look on her face.

"Wait, hold on, what?" Stiles has just enough time to turn back around to see the jinn charging towards him. The jinn takes a swipe at Stiles' head that he manages to narrowly dodge out of the way of. Instinct kicks in and Stiles thrust the knife upwards and through the jinn's hand. The creature lets out a pained scream, dropping to its knees. Stiles' eyes widen with horror at the sight, without thinking he twists the knife still in the jinn's hand. The sound of crunching bones and ripping bones causes Stiles to gag, then he sees it, trickling down the palm of its hand. Blood. He begins to feel the familiar lightheadedness creep in, the darkness seeping into his vision.

"Pull it together Stiles!" Fighting the urge to simultaneously vomit all over himself and pass out, Stiles lifts the bottle to the jinn's hand catching a few drops of blood. Stiles feels a strong hand grip around his bicep, nails digging into the soft flesh, drawing blood.

"I don't know what the hell you two are but you can't stop me. Only Allah can judge me!" Stiles looks into the cold, unfeeling eyes of the jinn, in a moment of pure clarity, Stiles viciously twists the knife again before ripping it from its hand. This time the jinn lets out a loud roar that causes the whole building to shake. Stiles swings his arm back, hitting the jinn across its jaw knocking it out cold.

After regaining his bearings he stumbles back over the mountain ash line next to Diana. Stiles pulls the book out of his pocket and flick it back to the page Diana marked for him.

"إزالة هذا الجن من هيئة غير راغبة"

Scott isn't sure he will ever get used to the sight of Chris Argent sitting in the kitchen of his childhood in his pyjamas sipping coffee but it has become a more frequent occurrence every time he has come home to visit his mom since he left for college. He pours himself a cup of coffee before taking a couple of slices of bread and placing them in the toaster, Scott turns back around to face Argent.

"So…" Scott's not really sure how he's supposed to start the conversation. Past conversations with Argent have never been this awkward, but suddenly when you know you're dead ex-girlfriends father is having sleepovers with your mom, things were inevitably going to get weird.

"It was nice seeing everyone again." Argent says over the rim of his mug of coffee. He sounds about as awkward as Scott feels. "I was surprised to see Derek there last night. I didn't know you were still in contact."

"We keep in touch occasionally." The toast springs out of the taster with a sudden pop. Scott quickly pulls out the golden slices of piping hot bread before covering them in butter.

"He hasn't changed much." Argent takes another sip of his coffee before continuing. "Still as friendly as ever."

The sarcastic quip throws Scott for a moment. He's never truly been able to interact with Chris in a relaxed environment for an extended period of time, seeing Argent banter with him is a completely new experience.

"Derek and Stiles have always had a… special relationship. One built on driving the other crazy. They both care about the each other though, they'll never admit it but they do care."

Argent places his coffee down, looking slightly more serious. "What did you make of Stiles' excuse about his newfound hand-eye coordination?"

"Can you really call it hand-eye coordination if they're not looking?" The look Argent gives Scott is decidedly unimpressed. Scott lets out a sigh before placing his half-eaten toast down on the bench.

"I believe him." Argent looks like he is about to argue with Scott for a moment before Scott stops him. "And it's not just because he's my best friend. When I went and visited him last October he had a packed schedule. The internship eats up the majority of his free time, and his partner really enthusiastic about maintaining a strict exercise program that she forces Stiles to do with her. Also, he really is on the baseball team. I don't think he has the time to run around like we did in high school."

"This does back up what my contact has been telling me. I was worried they'd become compromised, all their recent letters had been that Stiles was behaving like a regular college student. It didn't sound like him at all." Agent picks up his coffee cup and drains the last of the lukewarm liquid.

"I think getting away from Beacon Hills has been good for him, for all of us really."

The bell above the entry door to Deaton's clinic chimes out cheerfully as Stiles enters the reception area. The reception area is currently deserted and nobody behind the front desk, the quiet is eerie and the stillness of the clinic makes Stiles feel uncomfortable. Stiles had never really noticed before but Deaton's clinic seems to be permanently deserted of people. He can't remember the last time he someone sitting in the waiting area.

"Hello, Stiles. How can I help you today?" Stiles nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of Deaton's voice. He places one hand on his chest and feels his heart race a mile a minute. In an effort to regain his equilibrium Stiles turns to face the vet. Deaton is standing patiently behind the counter, a look of mild annoyance on his face.

"I just wanted to return this to you." Stiles places the leather book down on the counter in front of Deaton, still breathing hard.

The vet raises his eyebrows slightly at Stiles as he picks up the book. "So soon? Did you end up finding what you were looking for?"

Stiles let out a small huff. "Can I ask you a question?" He asks ignoring the vet's previous question.

"You can always ask Stiles. It doesn't mean I will always answer." Stiles internally rolls his eyes at Deaton.

"Is it worth it?" He asks with as much sincerity in his voice as he can muster.

"Is what worth it?" Deaton's interest now piqued.

"What you do, is it worth it? The possible danger to you and everyone around you, always maintaining the balance, being purposely vague all the damn time. Is it all worth it in the end?" Stiles stares at Deaton intensely, unwilling to break eye contact.

"If the reasons are right, then they will always outweigh any sacrifices made along the way. But then again, I am just a humble vet after all."

Sometimes Stiles just likes to watch Lydia, in the least creepy way possible. He likes watching her do mundane everyday stuff like brushing her hair or when she folds her laundry. Stiles gets lost in the every day of Lydia.

Right now Lydia is curled into his side as they sit on her bed watching a movie she chose on Netflix. Stiles watches as she lets out a little yawn, scrunching her nose up. Lydia gets this little crease between her brows that Stiles finds absolutely adorable. Her eyes begin to flutter and close, lashes fanning out against her cheeks.

Stiles lifts one hand up, and gently sweeps a piece of her hair that has across her face back. Lydia's open at Stiles' touch and her eyes flick up to look at him.

"Hey." Her voice is soft and heavy with sleep.

"Hey." He tries to fill that one word with as much love and affection as possible. Lydia cranes her head up slightly and pecks a light kiss to his lips.

"I've missed this, just the two of us spending time together." She wraps her arm around Stile's middle, squeezing him slightly.

"I've missed you too." Stiles mumbles as he buries his nose in Lydia's hair. He takes a deep breath inhaling the scent of jasmine. The sit in a comfortable silence for a moment, with only the sounds of the forgotten movie as background noise.

"We're okay though aren't we?" Lydia's question pulls Stiles out of his loved-up bubble.

"What? Why would you think they aren't?" The worry begins to build up in his chest, sitting there like a heavyweight.

"You're just different, I don't know how to describe it but you are." Lydia's voice sounds so small and so scared. Stiles knows how much Lydia hates being vulnerable.

"Nothing's changed, I'm still the same old Stiles." The words feel like lies on his lips.

"I don't want to lose you again." Lydia pulls herself up slightly to look him in the eye.

"You're not going to lose me Lyds, you've got me for life. Falling in love with you was kind of it for me."

STILES VS THE HARPIES

"Why are we always doing this shit at…TWO AM? Two am in the middle of FREAKING winter?" Stiles dramatically huffs out as he pulls his jacket closer around his neck. He watches as Diana sets up the pitching machine she "liberated" from the baseball department. Stiles wasn't happy to be pulled out of bed and dragged out onto the baseball field by Diana.

"Quit being such a drama queen. If we did this in the middle of the day, you can explain to all the curious college co-eds what the hell we are doing. Anybody walking around now will pass this off as some sort of drunken hallucination." Diana beings feeding baseballs into the machine.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Quit being such a drama llama and help a girl out." Stiles picks up the second bag of balls and begins helping Diana out.

"Alright, time for some practice." Diana says taking a step back once the machine is full.

"I hadn't realised you're skill set also included coaching baseball." Stiles snarks out as he breathes on to his hands to warm them up from the cold winter's night air.

"It doesn't." Diana turns away from Stiles and picks up a bat she had stored away in a sports bag. "This is for me." She wiggles the bat about in the air for emphasis.

"Did you want me to give you some pointers about America's favourite pastime? Because we really could have done that during the day." Stiles crosses his arms over his chest attempting to convey his annoyance. He now understands how Lydia use to feel when he would drag her out of bed in the middle of the night looking for evidence of supernatural activity, Stiles makes a mental note to apologise to his very understanding girlfriend when he sees her next.

"Well if you quit being a snarky asshole for a moment then you might let me explain that you will be using this." Diana moves her arm behind her back and seemingly pulls from thin air (and knowing her she probably did) a golden recurve bow with the same intricate markings that Stiles had seen on the wooden bow in her dorm room.

Stiles stares at the beautiful bow in complete awe as he carefully reaches out one hand to touch it. Before he can lay a finger on it Diana rips the bow from his reach.

"You have to promise me you will be careful with it. This bow was made especially from me by Hephaestus and the Cyclops, it is one of a kind and I am trusting you with it." There is a dark look in her eye that makes Stiles take her seriously.

"I swear I'll be careful with it." Stiles doesn't break eye contact with her, staring intensely back.

"To emphasise how serious I am about this, I've never let Apollo touch my bow, never mind actually use it." She slowly holds out the bow again for Stiles to take. Stiles reaches out again and gently wraps his hand around the riser.

"I promise I will be careful with it." The bow seems to hum with an energy all of its own, Stiles can feel the hum of power vibrate through his entire body. "Quick question, why am I holding your bow?" He holds the bow an arm's length away from his body as if he was afraid to get too close to it.

"Well Stiles, I'm going to hit that massive pile of balls-" The Goddess gestures to the pitching machine. "And you are going to shoot those balls with arrows."

"I'm going to what?!"

xXx

Stiles carefully pulls back the string of the bow, the heel of his hand tucked underneath his jaw. He watched as Diana's bat connects with the baseball making a loud crack as the two connect. Stiles releases the arrow. The arrow sails through the air and narrowly misses the ball.

"Not bad. You're getting better at this." Diana praises as she walks across the field to retrieve the arrow now stuck firmly in the grass.

"We've been at this for about an hour and I haven't hit anything." Stiles huffs out, clearly becoming frustrated with his lack of progress.

"You're doing really well for someone who's never used a bow before! Hitting a moving target is really difficult at the best of times without the extra handicap of it being dark. Don't give in just yet Stiles. I'm sure if I can teach a baby how to shoot, I can teach you." Diana places the arrow back in the quiver before lining herself up again to take a swing at the next ball. The machine spits another baseball out and Diana sends it flying in a perfect arch.

Stiles doesn't move to shoot the ball soaring across the sky.

"Who the hell lets a baby play with bows and arrows?" Stiles asks horrified.

"Aphrodite. Someone had to teach Eros how to shoot or it was all going to go very badly. Now get ready, I'm gonna hit another one. I have a good feeling about this one." Stiles lets out a heavy sigh, reluctantly notching a new arrow. He watches half-heartedly as this time the arrow grazes the side of the side of the baseball ripping the cowhide.

"Can't I just stick with my bat? I suck at this!" Stiles exclaims, throwing his arms in the air.

"Why do you have such a hard-on about using a damn bat? Humans are so weird." The Goddess just rolls her eyes at Stiles' dramatics. "Just one more for me, and then I'll take you to that twenty-four-hour diner you like for some curly fries, how about that boo?"

Stiles stews on her offer for a moment before begrudgingly agreeing to her offer.

This time when Stiles releases the arrow something feels different, an energy courses through his body and into the arrow. He watches in awe as the arrow collides perfectly with the baseball Diana had just sent soaring into the sky.

"Holy shit… I did it! I freaking hit it!" Stiles crows as Diana whoops in the background.

"Let's do it again!" Diana says, bubbling with excitement doing some sort of awkward happy dance.

"You're not what I thought a God would be." Stiles takes a moment to really look at her for a moment. She's wearing ratty old converse that looks like they could possibly be from the 1920s, grass stains on the knees of her jeans, and the hood of her bright pink hoodie is pulled up over her head, leather jacket over the top of that. Diana looks so utterly un-extraordinary.

"What were you expecting? Long flowing white gown? Because I can do that if you like. I also have this really sweet headpiece too that goes with the outfit. It's freaking huge!" Diana waves her hands around her to emphasise the size of the headpiece.

"No, well I mean yes but you're also kind of…" Stiles starts flailing his arms about like a windmill as if that was some sort of reasonable explanation. Diana just stares blankly at him for a moment before lowering her arms.

"I think I'm spending too much time with you. I'm starting to flail." Stiles lets out an indignant scoff when the pitching machine makes a terrible grinding and crunching noise.

"That doesn't sound good." The machine just groans in response before making a suspicious clanging noise.

"Damn it! I better check that out." Diana angrily stomps away from Stiles muttering curses under her breath.

He pulls out his phone, shooting off a text to Lydia before remember how early in the morning it is. The message he receives in response said was 'go to bed Stiles'. Stiles is responding with a series of random emoji's when a flash of movement in the outfield catches the corner of his eye. He swivels his body around to face the direction the movement came from.

"Did you see that?" He shouts out to Diana. Anxiety and nervous energy flood his system, it had been a while since he had been on full alert for a random attack.

"See what?" The Goddess responds in a detached tone. Stiles looks over at her to see that all of Diana's attention is focused on the pitching machine that she has now taken to kicking in an attempt to get it working again.

"I thought I saw something…" Stiles starts to move towards the area he saw the movement. Before he can get too far Diana lets out a triumphant cry.

"Fixed it! Now get your butt back here so we can keep practicing!" Stiles reluctantly turns around and walks back towards Diana. "Alright, we'll hit a couple more and then I'm gonna buy you the biggest damn plate of curly fries ever!"

The pitching machine spits out another ball that Diana skilfully hits with a satisfying crack. The ball flies across the sky, Stiles takes aim and releases the arrow, but before the arrow can hit the ball a piercing screeching noise fills the silence. Both Stiles and Diana fall to their knees, hands covering their ears. Stiles looks up and is greeted with the sight of something he had only ever seen in books. A giant half bird, half woman creature hovering over them, screeching and swiping her long talons out at them.

"Shit!" Stiles hears Diana curse under her breath. "The damn Harpies are back again."

"AGAIN?!"

"That stupid feather you found last year from a Harpy. Are you happy now?" Stiles is suddenly filled with a smug satisfaction, he gives a small fist pump when the Harpy decides to swoop them.

"Look out!" Diana dives at Stiles, knocking him over flat on the ground, covering his body with hers. Stiles feels the breeze from the Harpy's wings brush against the back of his neck. Diana rolls off of him, giving him a quick look over.

"You're not hurt are you?" Her voice full of concern.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." He looks up and meets Diana's worried face. Over her shoulder, Stiles can see the Harpy coming back around again to take a second swoop. Before he can even begin to comprehend what he is doing Stiles grabs for Diana's bow he dropped on the ground and shoots and shoots an arrow at the creature.

The arrow whizzes past Diana's ear startling the Goddess.

"What the actual fuck Stiles?-" Diana is cut off mid-rant by the sound of a pained cry. Stiles' arrow was buried deep in the wing of the attacking Harpy.

"Oh my Me… You actually hit it! High five dude!" Diana cheers holding up a hand for Stiles to slap. He does so out of reflex. Half of him is completely hyped up from all the adrenalin, the other half in shock because you know… he actually hit the monster with an arrow.

Stiles pushes himself up off the ground, only to be quickly shoved back down again by Diana, who swings the baseball bat, she has somehow managed to keep hold of, at a second Harpy that has now decided to make an appearance. The Harpy flies back and lands several feet away from them unmoving. Diana, still holding the bat out, smiles broadly at Stiles.

"I totally get why you like using the bat now. So satisfying." She quickly pulls Stiles to his feet, swapping her bow and quiver for his bat. "But I think I'm going to stick with what I'm best at. Now run!" Stiles honestly doesn't need to be told twice and starts to run for his life across the field bat in hand.

Stiles looks over his shoulder to see the first Harpy rip the arrow out of her wing with a pained scream. He doesn't stop, he just keeps running harder and faster than he's ever run before, hot on Diana's heels. Because anything that would make a God run for their life is not something Stiles is willing to face. He has no idea when he's going, he's following the Goddess blindly.

All his focus and energy is on keeping up with Diana that he doesn't notice the third Harpy swoop down. The creature's talons dig into Stiles' shoulders causing him to cry out in pain, lifting him off the ground slightly.

"STILES!" He barely hears Diana shout his name over the constant screeching noise of the Harpies. Diana fires of several arrows in quick succession hitting the Harpy square in the chest causing it to drop Stiles.

"Are you alright? Does it hurt?" Diana asks hurriedly, as she pulls a slightly shocked Stiles along.

"It doesn't hurt that much, just keep going." Stiles touches his right shoulder where he felt the Harpy's claws dig in. Pulling his hand away he sees his fingertips stained red.

"Is that blood?" He asks before his vision begins to swim and go black.

xXx

Stiles wakes up, his back propped against a wall, sitting on the hard, cold concrete floor of what appeared to be a stairwell. He can see his now ruined coat tossed carelessly beside him.

"Oh good, you awake." Diana squats down next to him. "You kind of passed out after you saw all the blood."

"How did I get here?" Stiles attempts to sit up straighter, hissing in pain at the deep cuts on his shoulders.

"I carried you." Diana pulls out some gauze from her magical pockets that seem to be bottomless pits of useful objects. She pulls back his shirt and presses the gauze against the wounds.

"You carried me?" Stiles places his hand over Diana's, holding down the gauze for her.

"Yes, I threw you over my shoulder and carried you here. Most of these don't actually look that bad. There's only a couple that needs stitches, do you want to sew them up or should I?" She tapes down the gauze before pulling out a small travel sewing kit and holding it up for Stiles to see. Stiles looks at the kit in horror.

"I am not stitching myself up with THAT! Is it even clean? Why can't you just take me to the hospital?"

"If you want to explain to the hospital staff how you obtain those injuries then be my guest. You may also get to spend some extra time in a nice padded cell too, how does that sound?" Diana pulls a needle out of the sewing kit and begins to thread a piece of cotton through the eye.

"Look, I know its super gross but you need to stitch those wounds up. The Harpies are still out there and if we want a fighting chance against them then I need you with me." Stiles closes his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath.

"Can't you like heal me or something. You're a God after all." Diana snorts at that.

"My health-related skills are of no use to you. Goddess of childbirth, plague and bringing and relieving disease in women. So unless you have some polycystic ovaries you want me to fix, I can't help like that." She starts wiping down the needle with an alcohol swab. Stiles makes a mental note to ask Diana how to pull an object out of thin air, it seems like a handy skill to have.

"You're going to have to do it then. If I try I'm going to vomit or pass out or both." Stiles grits his teeth and braces himself for the pain as Diana gives him a solemn nod.

Stiles can't help but cry out in pain as Diana quickly stitches muttering sorry's under her breath. He focuses on his breathing and tries to push past the pain and the wave of nausea rising up his throat. Diana finishes sewing up the last of Stiles' cuts before placing some more gauze on his shoulders.

"All done." She says helping Stiles up off the ground. He braces himself against the wall for a moment, trying to stamp down the fresh urge to vomit. It all becomes too much, and he loses what little contents he had left in his stomach over the floor and his coat.

"Damn it." Stiles looks forlornly at his ruined jacket, he can't afford a new one. Diana slides an arm around his waist, holding him upright.

"I'll buy you a new one. It's probably my fault that they're here." Stiles only looks confused, how can this be Diana's fault?

"Harpies sometimes are referred to as 'the hounds of mighty Zeus'. I can only assume dad has them spy on me. Harpies aren't the brightest creatures, they just blindly follow orders." She grabs Stiles' bat and her bow and quiver that had been propped against the wall before taking the brunt of his weight. "Do you think you can make it up the stairs? We need to get to the roof."

"I hurt my shoulders, not my legs." Stiles pushes himself off Diana and begins a slow ascension up the stairs.

"Just thought you might have wanted some help since you passed out, lost a lot of blood and threw up in under half an hour. But whatever dude!" Diana says primly as she breezes past him. Leaving Stiles to walk up alone.

xXx

When Stiles finally makes it to the top of the stairs he is greeted with the sight of Diana sitting on the top step, chin resting against the base of the bat, looking completely unimpressed.

"See, I didn't need your help." Stiles' breathing is heavier then he would care to admit and he feels lightheaded.

"Next time just let me help you. As a being who is over four billion years old and will quite literally live forever, waiting for you to come up those stairs felt like the longest time EVER." With that, she hops up off the step and tosses Stiles his bat. He fumbles with the bat, clumsily trying to get a grip on it. Diana just rolls her eyes before walking away.

When Stiles finally composes himself he joins Diana out on the rooftop overlooking a part of the campus he is not familiar with, he's not even sure what building he is in.

"What's the plan then? Are we going to whoop some bird-lady ass?" Stiles bounces a couple of times on the balls of his feet before rolling his shoulders and immediately regretting it at the wave of pain that hits him.

"Don't die. That's the plan."

"It's a good plan. But I feel it could you some improvement. Like actual detail." Stiles presses his lips together in frustration.

"How about this for a plan, duck."

"What?"

"DUCK!" Stiles looks over his shoulder to see one of the Harpies barrelling down on them at a rapid speed. He throws himself down low on the ground covering his head with his hands. Stiles hears the tell-tail sounds of Diana releasing several arrows and a Harpy cry out in pain. He looks up to see the back of the bird-like monster flap away.

"You ok?" Diana asks, helping Stiles up, for what feels like the millionth time that night.

"Yeah, I'm goo- Get out of the way!" Stiles pushes Diana out of the path of the Harpy that had circled back around to attack again. He swings the bat with as much force as he can muster, pushing past the pain of his shoulders and the pulling of the homemade stitches.

The bat connects with the monster's jaw, sending her flying back over the edge of the building.

"Nice." Diana picks herself up off the ground, walking over to the edge of the rooftop and looking over. "I apologise for ever doubting the bat."

"Why are people always questioning the bat?" Stiles whines.

"Because it's a bat, Stiles." All Stiles can really do is huff at Diana's response.

Stiles joins Diana at the edge of the roof, looking over he can't see any sign of the Harpy on the ground.

"Where did it go? I hit it, it dropped, so where did it go?"

"No clue. Just keep your eyes peeled. It'll probably turn up soon." Diana knocks another arrow as Stiles raises his bat ready to swing. The air is still and the eerie silence is only broken by the sound of Stiles breathing. He walks around the edge of the building, moving away from Diana, looking over the edge, body on full alert.

The familiar sounds of a Harpies scream breaks through the night once again. Stiles swivels around trying to see where the noise could have come from when two cries respond to the first. Stiles runs frantically around the building back towards where he last saw the Goddess.

He finds Diana fighting off all three Harpies at once. She's managing to hold them off with a combination of arrows and beating the creatures away with her bow. Without a second thought, Stiles runs into the fray swinging wildly. The next few moments are a confusing mess of limbs and flying feathers.

Stiles is beating back a particularly persistent Harpy when he notices Diana pick up something off the ground. He doesn't have much time to think about it before the Harpy makes an attempt to gain the upper hand.

Diana let's out a war like cry before Stiles hears the sound of ripping flesh and crushing bones. Stiles spares a moment to glance over and see that Diana has managed to impale two of the Harpies on the metal piping she must have picked up before. She swings the pipe with the two Harpies still attached over the edge of the building before dropping them over.

"A little help here would good." Stiles shouts out as he manages to push back the creature once again. Diana comes running towards Stiles, leaping over an air conditioning unit before taking a flying kick to the bird woman sending her tumbling over the edge of the building once again.

"You get out of here now. Get back to your dorm and rest up. I'll take care of this, it's kind of my fault anyway that they're here." Stiles makes a motion to protest before Diana stops him. "Go home, Stiles." She reaches down to her ankles, pulling up the cuffs of her jeans, pulling out two knives. Diana moves to the edge of the building once again and stands on the ledge facing him.

"I'll call you tomorrow." Is all she says before taking a step backward off the roof. Stiles stands there for a moment, frozen from the shock before running and looking over to the ground below.

"Where does everybody freaking go when they fall off the damn building?" Stiles exclaims when he can see any sign of Diana or the Harpies. "Who am I even talking too?" He huffs throwing his arms up in exasperation, pulling his stitches painfully.

If Lydia could go back in time and tell her sixteen-year-old self that she would be in a serious relationship with Stiles Stilinski and hosting a slumber party with two werewolves, a wear coyote and a former US Marshal/bounty hunter, she thinks her younger self would have laughed her off.

But here she is, surrounded by Malia, Cora, Hayden, and Braeden in her childhood bedroom. She'd offered to host the girls' only party as a way for Malia and Cora to spend more time together, as well as take her mind off of her current issues with Stiles.

Her boyfriend has reassured her multiple times that His friendship with Diana is just that, friendship. But since the pack Christmas party, he won't tell her where that bat came from. Lydia has a sneaking suspicion the gift came from her and Stiles is refusing to tell her because he knows her feelings. Stiles won't even tell Scott and his father where the bat came from, so Lydia just knows it has to be from her. She's not sure why another girl sent her boyfriend a fancy baseball bat but she knows it had to be her.

The other girls are sitting around her, laughing, chatting and watching as Cora paints Malia's nails with a steady hand. Lydia stares vacantly into space, mind wondering.

"Are you ok? You smell upset." Malia asks breaking Lydia's reverie. Lydia blinks a couple of times before plastering a fake smile on her face.

"I'm fine, just off in my own little world." She says trying to be as convincing as possible. Malia narrows her eyes suspiciously before Cora opens her mouth.

"You're lying, something's bothering you. Just says what's bothering you." Cora deadpans before going back to painting her cousin's nails. Lydia's whole body stiffens, Cora has always been a very blunt person but there is no love lost between the two of them since the days of the Alpha pack and Darch. Hayden, who Lydia has never been close to, due to age difference and the fact she spent most of her time with Liam, Mason, and Cory, places a gentle hand over Lydia's.

"Not that I would normally make comments about other people's scents," She gives Malia a pointed look. "But we're your friends," At that Cora gives a snort, before getting a kick from Malia. "And we just want to help. I spend most of my time with boys, and I don't have many female friends at school." Hayden's eyes look downcast.

The old Lydia wouldn't have cared, the old Lydia would have filed what Hayden told her away to use against her later. But the Lydia sitting in that room right now is different. She has real friendships and people she can talk too.

"It's not that big of a deal really, it's just stuff with Stiles." Lydia attempts to make the problem sound trivial.

"Did he do something? Do we need to hurt him?" Malia asks eyes narrowing.

"What? No! Nothing like that… it's just… Diana." Lydia hates how her voice sounds so small and weak.

"Diana as in Stiles' friend at the FBI program?" Cora asks.

"Yes." Lydia responds tersely.

"So you're jealous of her?" Cora arches an eyebrow with a smug look.

"I'm not jealous. Lydia Martin does not get jealous." She scoffs at Cora, who gives her a look that tells her she can see through all her bravado.

"Can we hurt her?" Malia asks looking a little gleeful at the prospect. Hayden's eyes go wide in shock.

"No Malia! It's fine! Everything is fine! I have no problem with my boyfriend being friends with a tall, willowy, beautiful girl, who has similar interests to him, is super athletic and is warm and friendly. Why should I be concerned about him spending all his free time with her? I don't think he has ANY romantic interest in her at all!" Lydia lets out a laugh that sounds slightly unhinged even to her ears. She looks around the room at the concerned gazes of her friends, except Braeden who has been carefully filing her nails the entire time.

"Yeah, you're totally fine with their friendship." Cora snorts gleefully.

"It's ok to feel threatened." Hayden says soothingly. Lydia flinches back.

"I do not feel threatened! Lydia Martin does not let a boy make her feel insecure."

"When I was a coyote I use to mark my territory by peeing on it." Lydia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

"I'm not going to pee on Stiles Malia." At that Cora lets out a loud cackle followed closely by Hayden. Lydia can't help but crack a smile as laughter bubbles out her lips.

Braeden looks up at the girls now rolling on the floor howling with laughter. She pulls one of her earbuds giving them all a quizzical look.

"What did I miss?"

"Lydia's going to pee on Stiles to mark her territory!" Malia offers up helpfully. Braeden's eyes go wide with shock and disgust.

"I'm sorry I asked." She mutters under her breath before placing the earbud back in her ear.

STILES VS THE SELKIE

When he left Beacon Hills, Stiles had innocently assumed that his days of running for his life through the woods in the middle of the night would come to an end. Yet here he is once again running for his life the night before he's due to head back to Beacon Hills for Christmas.

His feet feel heavy and his lungs burn as the blood pounds in his ears. The hunter's bullets whiz past his head and all he can think is to just keep on going, keep moving, never stopping.

He can hear heavy breathing close behind his, sensing her presence following close behind her. Stiles reaches out and grabs on to her wrist, not wanting to lose her in the confusion.

Stiles makes a sharp turn left, causing him to jerk her arm awkwardly. Before he can apologise for the sudden movement one of the hunters appears in front of him, raising his gun. Stiles reacts purely on instinct and punches the hunter in his windpipe incapacitating him. The hunter drops to his knees, hand wrapped around his throat, coughing and spluttering.

The sound of a twig breaking to their right makes Stiles push his companion behind him, using his body to shield her. A second hunt reveals themselves, shotgun raised and ready to fire.

"Just give us the girl and you can go, free kid, we've got no interest in you." The second hunter takes a careful step towards them, the first hunter continues to struggle to breathe on the ground.

"Walk away now." Stiles attempts to sound much braver and far more confident then he actually feels. "Trust me this will only end badly for you." He can feel her pressed against his back shivering in the cold night air, the only clothing she has on is his old flannel shirt that he had given her.

"Kid there is two of you and about ten of us. Hand over the damn selkie, is she really worth dying for?" Stiles can feel the terrified selkie dig her nails into his shoulder and bury her face in his back.

"I think she is." Before the hunter is able to fire his gun he is knocked back, crying out in pain, dropping his gun. Stiles can see an arrow buried in his shoulder. A second whooshing interrupts the hunter's screams of pain and the first hunter calls out. A second arrow is now sticking out of his leg.

"Run dumb ass!" Comes from somewhere up in the trees and Stiles doesn't need to be told twice. He and the selkie begin to run again. The sounds of guns firing come from behind them, followed by more screams from some of the hunters.

Suddenly Stiles feels the selkie rip her hand from his and let out a distressed cry. He can see she has dropped something on the ground that resembles a rug or fur cape. Without thinking Stiles snatches the item up and begins running again.

He tries to guide them back to Diana's van the best and fastest way possible but everything looks the same and he can tell the selkie is becoming more distressed. Stiles recognises an oddly shaped boulder that he remembers passing earlier. He tightens his grip on the terrified selkies arm, urging her to move forward quicker.

They're so close, they're almost clear.

Stiles feels the selkie's arm ripped from his grip, the force of the sudden movement causing him to stumble and fall down into the leaf litter covering the floor of the woods. He looks up and sees a new hunter has managed to sneak up on them and capture the selkie.

This new hunter has one arm wrapped around her neck and the barrel of his handgun pressed against her temple. The selkie is trembling with fear, silent tears streaming down her face. Stiles lifts a hand up in an attempt to calm the agitated hunter before he can say anything Diana drops down from a nearby tree knocking the hunter over allowing for the selkie to scramble away.

Diana wrenches back the hunter's arm and stomping down on his leg causing the bone to snap loudly causing him to scream out in agony. She looks up blowing hair out of her face.

"Why are you just lying there? Keep moving Stiles!" She says dumping the hunter like a sack of potatoes. Stiles stands up, brushing the dirt and leaves off of himself before the three of them begin running again.

They finally make it out of the woods without incident, Diana shoves him and the selkie in the back of her van before hopping in the driver's seat and speeding off.

Diana drives erratically through the city streets, weaving in and out of traffic and taking corners sharply. Stiles is amazed that they haven't been pulled over yet, as he attempts to hold onto the seats for dear life.

The van suddenly comes to a stop. He slides open the door and looks around at where Diana has taken them. He walks a short distance away from the van and looks out over the Potomac River. Stiles turns around to ask Diana why she has brought them here when he sees her deep in conversation with the now much calmer selkie.

"You should be safe now, I don't think any of the hunters were able to follow us." Diana says in the most motherly voice Stiles has ever heard her use. The selkie just nods her head before pausing for a moment, without warning she throws her arms around Diana's neck drawing her into a massive hug.

The selkie looks over at Stiles blushing shyly and averting her eyes from his gaze. Stiles looks over at Diana quizzically.

"She thinks you like her romantically." Diana offers helpfully. Stiles' face drops with shock.

"What? Why would she think that?" Stiles hisses under his breath, sounding panicked.

"Well, you have been holding on to her seal-skin pretty tightly there. She probably thinks you want to marry her." Stiles looks over at the selkie, her eyes shining brightly at him. "She may also have a little bit of a crush on you after you helped save her."

"How do I let her down then?" Stiles can feel beads of nervous sweat beginning to form on his brow.

"Give her back her seal-skin so she can return to the ocean." Diana states as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

"I have a girlfriend! That I love very much!" Stiles almost yells at the poor selkie's face as he throws the seal-skin at her. The look on her face switches almost instantly from adoring to cold and angry. The selkie snatches up her skin and marches off towards the partially frozen river.

"I'm sorry!" Stiles calls out after her.

"Smooth." Diana mocks.

"Shut up." It's not particularly clever or witty but it's all Stiles can come up with at the time.

"Right Casanova you are." Stiles just groans, hanging his head in shame.

Christmas break can't come soon enough.


	6. Chapter 6

Lydia is not an impulsive person, she is a woman of science and logic and reason. She thinks situations through rationally and carefully before she acts. Lydia is proud of her level-headedness.

But when it comes to Stiles Lydia tends to lose her ability to think rationally. Jackson use to bring out a side in her that she never particularly liked, insecure and bitchy. Stiles usually brings out the best in her. He sees the person she truly is, the good and the bad, and he loves all the facets that make her who she is.

So when Lydia sensed a potential threat to her relationship with Stiles it may have set off her crazy. Just a little bit.

Lydia took note that Valentine's Day fell on a weekend this year and made the decision that she would drive from Boston to Washington and surprise him.

The plan seemed perfect, pack her best lingerie, drive the short eight hours to Washington DC and surprise Stiles in his dorm room.

She has messaged his roommate to confirm Stiles' class schedule and he promised to stay away the entire weekend. Her last class finished up Thursday afternoon allowing for her to leave early Friday and she has no scheduled classes until Tuesday allowing for two full days with Stiles.

Everything will be perfect, just perfect.

Lydia looks over at Stiles' alarm clock, the bright red numbers burn the time 23:48 into her retinas, her eyes feeling blurry and tired.

She's been waiting in his dorm room for hours waiting for him to come back from class. Lydia is furious at him, his classes finished hours ago and he hasn't come back to his dorm room.

She hasn't called him yet, still living in some vain hope that she can still surprise him but Lydia is bubbling with a quiet rage that Stiles has managed to ruin her plans that he knew nothing about.

And yes she knows her feeling are somewhat irrational but right now Lydia couldn't give a damn.

She is hungry and tired, it's been such a long day. Lydia lies down on Stiles' bed, closing her eyes for just a moment. All she needs is to rest her eyes for just a moment.

Her eyelids grow heavy and Lydia begins to feel herself drift off.

Lydia jerks awake at the sound of voices coming from somewhere in the hallway. Her sleep clouded mind can't make out at first what's being said.

"I told you those little assholes were vicious but did you listen to me? No, no you didn't and now here I am carrying your sorry ass home. I am the Kevin Costner to your Whitney Houston. And if you keep this shit up I will not always love for you!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I am in a lot of pain."

"No! Why would that make me feel better? That's not how this relationship is supposed to work dude. You are the brains and I very clearly am the brawn."

"Hey! I could be the brawn!" The statement is punctuated by a dull thud and a small groan.

Lydia lifts her head up off of the pillow at the sound of the two familiar voices getting closer.

"You're so coordinated at training and then you get into a practical situation and become an uncoordinated mess limbs. I've never seen anything like it before."

"But we won, didn't we? We destroyed the ring right?"

"Yeah boo, they aren't coming back from that ass whooping that's for sure."

"And you said we would be able to do it just the two of us! Ha! But you were so right about the mushrooms, they were really angry about them."

Lydia swings her legs off of the bed a tip ties over closer to the door. She would recognize Stiles' voice anywhere. She furrows her brow at the conversation. None of it makes any sense. Where the hell has he been and what has he been doing?

"Just shut up Stiles."

The talking stops and Lydia can only just make out a rustling noise before the sound of a key scraping and the heavy thud of the lock opening.

Lydia crosses her arms over her chest, throws her shoulders back and settles on her most intimidating look before the door swings open to reveal a very disheveled looking Stiles and Diana.

Stiles has one arm thrown over Diana's shoulders and she is using both hands to keep him steady and upright. The two stand in the doorway frozen at the sight of Lydia. Stiles removes his arm from his friend's shoulders before taking a very unsteady step forward out of her grip.

"Lydia!" His face now lighting up at the sight of his girlfriend. Lydia just raises a single eyebrow, looking unimpressed. Stiles looks back over his shoulder at Diana, then back to Lydia.

"I, can explain." Stiles a finger up and opens his mouth like he is about to say more before falling face forward and passing out cold on the ground.

Lydia just stares at her idiot boyfriend passed out on the ground for a moment before turning her gaze to Diana. The other girl just looks down at Stiles lying on the floor, blinking owlishly, slowly looking back up at Lydia.

"He… can explain." With that Diana promptly turns around, stepping over Stiles' splayed out limbs and heading out the door.

"It was nice seeing you again Lydia!" Diana shouts out over her shoulder as she high tales it down the hall away from Stiles' dorm room.

Lydia looks back down at the boyfriend lying awkwardly on the ground, huffing in exasperation she bends down to roll him over.

Stiles jerks back and hisses in pain as Lydia gently dabs a peroxide-soaked cotton ball over the cuts on his face. She shoots him a look that says 'keep still' and 'I am so mad at you right now' all rolled into one, Stiles can only smile back sheepishly.

"So you're telling me that all this is from an underground fight club that you and some of your FBI friends joined?" Stiles can tell from the edge in her voice that she doesn't believe him one bit.

"Yes?"

Lydia pushes a cotton ball into a cut on his lip with more force than necessary, it takes all of Stiles' energy not let her know how much that really hurt.

"Was that an answer or a question? Because you don't really sound very sure of yourself Stiles." She drops the used cotton ball into the small trash can next to Stiles' desk before taking his face in her hands to inspect the damage. "You'll live. Now take your shirt off."

He pulls his tee shirt over his head with a low, slow groan of pain. Lydia can't help but gasp at the sight of the large dark bruises blooming across his chest and along his ribs.

"It looks a lot worse than it actually is Lyds."

Lydia bites her lip and reaches out a hesitant hand to touch the largest darkest bruise.

"Some of us have been doing some extra training-"

"I don't think you can really call a fight club training Stiles."

"It's not, we just go sometimes to fight people we don't know. So we can practice against people we don't train with all the time." This is the weakest lie he's ever told and he knows it. Lydia is never going to believe he has joined an underground fight club, he's never really been one for getting into fights that went a matter of life or death.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Stiles lets out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding in. She believes him. A sudden wave of crushing guilt hits him like waves crashing on the shore.

"I don't know." Oh god, he feels so sick lying to her like this. He's the worst boyfriend ever.

"Is it because it's a stupid, dumb reckless thing to do?" Lydia snaps, slapping Stiles on the arm with as much force as she can muster.

"Ow! Stop! Injured person here, be gentle." Stiles attempts to curl his body away from his girlfriend's fists of fury.

"How can you be such an idiot? What if you had been seriously injured? Or worse thrown out of the FBI program! Don't mess up your future by being a meathead."

"Fine! Just- OW! Stop hitting me!" Lydia lightly hits his shoulder one last time before curling her body into Stiles' side, wrapping her arms around him and placing her head on his chest. She closes her eyes and listens to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. Stiles kisses the crown of Lydia's head.

"I'm really happy you're here Lyds" He whispers into her strawberry blond hair.

"I wanted to surprise you. I missed you."

Stiles places one hand under her chin, tilting her face towards him and kissing her soundly on the lips. Lydia deepens the kiss, reaching her hand up behind his head and pulling Stiles in, only to pull apart when needing to breathe. "Missed you too. Christmas feels like it was months ago."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to forget about me." Stiles furrows his brow at his girlfriend's statement.

"What's that supposed to mean Lydia? I could never forget about you ever. I've been in love with you since I was eight, that kind of thing leaves an impression on you."

"Don't worry about it, I didn't mean anything by it."

"Yes, you did. Are you still having nightmares about the Wild Hunt?" Stiles asks, his voice laced with concern.

Lydia lets out a huff of frustration, lifting her head off of Stiles' chest. "No, no… It's just, I don't want to be that girl. I'm _not_ that girl, not anymore. But sometimes I feel like…"

"Feel like what Lydia?"

"I don't like how close you and Diana are!" Lydia blurts out looking almost ashamed.

"I… I don't understand. Diana and I are just friends." Stiles attempts to sit up straighter, his stiff muscles aching with every movement.

"I know! But I can't help but feel… jealous. Sometimes it feels like we wasted so much time, I almost lost you before I even had you. But she gets you for four years! You talk about her all the time too!" Stiles can't help but let his jaw drop slightly at his girlfriend, he feels like a massive idiot that he never knew she felt this way. "Please, I don't want to lose you again."

Lydia sniffs loudly and brushes the unfallen tears from her eyes. Stiles feels sick to his stomach.

"I love you so much, Lydia." His voice is so quiet. "You're probably one of the best things to ever happen to me." He cups her cheek as he gently presses their foreheads together.

"Nothing is going to change how much I love you. Nobody will ever come between us I promise. It's you and only you Lydia." Stiles looks into her eyes, hoping she can see how deep his love for her is. Lydia gives him a shy smile before closing the gap between them with a kiss. Stiles reluctantly pulls back from the kiss to look Lydia in the eye again.

"Diana and I are nothing more than friends. Trust me we do not see each other that way at all."

"God I feel so stupid for getting worked up over this. I'm so much better than petty jealousy."

"Scott told me once that physical pain can keep a werewolf human because the pain grounds them. After everything with the Nogitsune and… Donovan, I was worried that I was becoming some sort of monster. But the emotional pain, the guilt I felt. That kept me grounded. Emotions, even the ugly ones, remind us that we're human."

"Who are you and what have you done with Stiles?"

"I've been taking philosophy this semester. Diana suggested-"

"Of course she did…" Lydia sighs before physically pulling herself away from Stiles.

"Please just give her a chance! I think you would really like her if you spent more time getting to know her. And then you would also realise that her romantic interest in me is non-existent. She's my girl-bro, like Scott but a girl."

Lydia looks a Stiles for a moment, he can see in her eyes a million thoughts rushing through her head. She presses her lips together before exhaling through her nose.

"Ok, for you I will try and get to know her." Stiles beams at Lydia, his smile is wide and bright. It fills her with warmth and happiness, making her feel like she has made the right decision even if it pained her to do so.

"Great! I'll message her right now to see if she's free for brunch or something!" Stiles hurried pulls out his phone from his pants pocket, letting out a small prayer when he sees that the screen hasn't been cracked, before quickly typing out a message to Diana.

"Seriously? You're doing that right now?" Lydia asks unimpressed as she tries not to roll her eyes at him. Because seriously, boys.

"What?" He looks up from his phone, a look of confusion plastered across his face.

"If you seriously can't figure out why I'm pissed-" Her rant is cut off by the sound of Stiles' phone chiming with a new message. Lydia lets out a huff of frustration as Stiles picks up his phone to read the message.

Stiles is silent for a moment as he reads the text he just received, completely oblivious to the death glare he is receiving from his very angry girlfriend.

"It's from Diana." Lydia can't help but roll her eyes because of course, it is. "She says, _'We should probably do brunch on Sunday. Tomorrows Valentine's Day, you should spend it with your girlfriend who drove 8 hours to see you dumbass. I'm amazed she puts up with you.'_ " Lydia can't help but let out an undignified snort of amusement. Stiles' phone lights up again with another new message from Diana.

' _Just a reminder: You're an idiot.'_ The message reads. This makes Lydia actually laughs out loud, Stiles' put out pout just makes her laugh even harder.

"Maybe I will like her, she sounds like a smart woman. The brains and the brawn." Lydia giggles before turning her attention back to Stiles' injuries.

The three of them sit in a booth at a diner not far from Stiles' dorm room late on Sunday morning and the vibe is… awkward. They've all been just sitting there making idle chit chat that has punctuated with long drawn out silent gaps.

"So… where are you from Diana?"

"Washington… state that is… Olympic coast. Small town about an hour drive from Port Angeles."

"Cool."

"Cool… So you and Stiles grew up together?"

"Yep."

"That's nice."

"Mmhumm."

Stiles regrets ever thinking that this brunch was a good idea. Maybe Scott was right, all his ideas are terrible. He'd never been more thankful in his life to see the waitress head towards their table.

"Hi, what can I get you all today?" The blond bubbly waitress asks pulling out her notebook from her apron pocket.

"YES! HELLO!" Stiles yells so loudly that he causes Lydia, Diana, the waitress and an elderly couple in the table next to them jump. "Can you please give me your opinion on every item on the menu? I'm not sure what I want and I could use your expert opinion."

Lydia stares at her boyfriend with the most unimpressed look she can muster, while Diana mumbles under her breath about how much of spaz Stiles is acting. Both girls look at each other and share a knowing look in a rare moment of bonding. Lydia knows exactly what he's doing, it's what he always does, talk at the problem.

The flustered looking waitress final regains her composure and begins to list off her favourite items on the menu.

"Well, my favourite is the waffles. They come with strawberries and whipped cream-"

"That sounds great! We'll take three of those. Thank you!" Lydia cut the waitress off with a deadly smile that hasn't seen her wear since before Allison passed away.

"Actually I was going to get the…" Diana trails off when she catches sight of Lydia's expressionless face and Stiles' wide panicked eyes. "You know what? Waffles sound great!" She snaps her menu shut, handing it back to the confused looking waitress.

Stiles looks between the two women sitting across the booth from each other. Lydia has now directed her attention towards Diana, her focus razor sharp like she is studying a complex math problem, while Stiles can see the way Diana's nostrils are flaring and the hard line of her mouth tells him she is currently using all her control to not lose her cool at the entire situation.

He looks up at the waitress and tries to project the biggest 'sorry' humanly possible with only his eyes and overly apologetic facial expressions. The waitress' eyes dart around the table taking in the awkward scene before giving an awkward laugh and tight smile before hurrying away, back to the safety of the kitchens.

The silence at the table is overwhelming and Stiles has never been very good at keeping quiet for very long. He bounces his leg up and down at a rapid frantic pace, digging his fingers into the cracked vinyl covering the booth seats.

"So Diana," Lydia's voice breaks through the silence causing Stiles' already erratic heartbeat to spike with panic. "We never really had a chance to talk last time we met. I don't know _anything_ about you."

Stiles just want to curl up and die. He wishes he never lied to his friends, he wishes he never met Diana, no scratch that, he wishes Argent never met Diana. But as his mom used to say if wishes were horses' even beggars would ride.

"There's not much to tell really, I'm not very interesting." Stiles lets out a violent snort at that load of bullshit Diana just served up. Lydia's eyes flick over to Stiles for a brief moment while Diana maintains a perfect poker face.

"I don't think that's true at all sweetie. I want to know _everything_ thing about you, you know since you and Stiles will be spending _so_ much time together." Lydia props her elbow up on the table before resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"Um, well as you know my twin brother and I grew up in a small town called Sappho, it's in Washington along the Olympic coast. There's not really much there, just a gas station, motel and a café. We had to drive to Forks for school."

"Forks? As in…" Lydia trails off, disbelief colouring her tone.

"Yes, it's the town you're thinking of. Don't worry, there were no vampires." Diana snarks back expertly as if she had been doing it for years.

Stiles is suppressing the urge to groan because seriously Diana has got to be trolling him now.

"It must have been tough for you growing up in a small town as mixed twins." Lydia must have been paying attention to him when he goes on tangents about the internship because he swears she's using some FBI questioning techniques.

"Po has always been a ray of sunshine, nothing is ever a struggle when he's around. We've had our ups and downs but I would march into battle for him." Stiles rolls his eyes so hard it physically hurts. Now that he's been enlightened to her true nature Stiles can help but notice how completely unsubtle Diana really is.

Everything has been going rather smoothly, so far, but it can't last. Lydia is determined to stake her claim and Diana is an all-powerful being who could crush the entire east coast in the blink of an eye if she even feels moderately slighted.

Stiles keeps looking over to the kitchen, willing the food to come faster. The fuller everyone's mouth is the less talking can take place.

Lydia continues to ask seemingly innocent questions about Diana. ( _If you weren't pursuing a career in law enforcement what would you be studying?_ Midwifery. _What do you do to relax?_ I like hiking in the forests back home. _Do you have any pets?_ Dogs, but they're all back in Sappho.)

Stiles allows himself to relax and as the conversation begins to flow more easily between the two girls. The heavy lump that had been sitting in the pit of his stomach the moment he walked through the door of the dinner has finally begun to ease. Laughter rings out next to him, genuine smiles light's up Lydia and Diana's faces.

"I'm really glad we've taken the time to get to know one another," Lydia leans across the table taking Diana's hand in hers. "We are going to be great friends."

The waitress returns to the noticeably less tense table with their meals, placing each plate down in front of them. "Just let me know if you need-"

"What are your intentions for Stiles?" The light jovial tone Lydia uses it takes a moment for everyone to realize what she's asked. Stiles feels as if all the air has left his lungs and his jaw drops, the poor waitress' body tenses entirely for a split second before she hightails it away from the table, Stiles makes a mental note to leave her a generous tip.

"I'm sorry what?" Diana says momentarily stunned.

"What. Do. You. Want. With. My. Boyfriend?" Lydia's voice is full of ice. They now have the full attention of the elderly couple who have long given up the pretense that they are not eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Lydia please." Stiles pleads, Diana's eyes quickly dart over to Stiles for a brief moment.

"I don't understand." And honestly, Stiles believes Diana, she seems genuinely confused about the entire situation. "Wait…wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you think that I want…? That him and I… EWWWWWWWWWW! You think I like like him? Don't get me wrong I like you well enough Stiles but I don't want to see your penis!"

The sound of the gentleman at the eavesdropping table begins to cough rather violently as his wife pats him on the back while repeating 'Oh Harold!'

"In fact, I don't want to see anybody's penis! Penis' are gross!" Diana's volume has risen so much that now the entire diner is staring at them.

"Can we please stop yelling the word _'penis'_ please!" Stiles hisses out as he looks around the shocked faces staring back.

Lydia lets her death grip on Diana's arm go completely ignoring her mortified boyfriend. "OH! Oh! So you don't want to...?"

"NO! Trust me I have zero interest in touching Stiles' junk. Total turn off."

"Thank you for the confidence boost there. Now can we please stop yelling about my junk in public?" Stiles feels his face burning, this has to be in the top ten most humiliating moments of his life.

"Of course sweetie," Lydia says as she pats his cheek before placing a soft kiss in the corner of his mouth.

Lydia's phone lights up begins to vibrate, Stiles can see a picture of her mom fill the screen.

"I better take this." She says picking up the phone, Stiles slides out of their side of the booth to allow Lydia out.

Stiles watches as Lydia greets her mother before making her way outside where it is quieter. He sucks in a deep breath, exhaling slowly as he looks back at Diana who is happily munching away at her waffles without a care in the world. She catches his eye and swallows her mouthful.

"I think that went well." Her tone so cheerful Stiles considers ramming his head into the linoleum table repeatedly.

"Really? Really? You think that was ideal? She thinks you're a lesbian Diana." The Goddess pauses for a moment, a look of contemplation on her face before shrugging it off.

"There are worse thing she could think about me. Nothing wrong with preferring girls." She begins shoveling more whipped cream and strawberries into her mouth. Stiles can't help but gape at her slightly.

"It's not just that, I haven't seen Lydia act like that since we were sixteen! Sixteen! It was like she reverted back to that insecure girl who pretended to be an airhead for the benefit of her jackass of a boyfriend!" Stiles really hate that his relationship with Lydia may start to parallel her one with Jackson.

"I could always let Lydia know that I'm really not the biggest threat to your relationship." Her tone is teasing but Stiles is fully aware how quickly this conversation could turn dangerous.

"You would tell her about being a… you know what?" He makes a flailing gesture with his hands that causes him to nearly knock his fork off the table.

"No, I would just tell her about all the sex dreams you've had about Derek Hale." She lets out an evil cackle as all of the colour drains from Stiles' face and the urge to bolt from the booth and keep running into infinity overwhelms him.

"How do you know about that?" Stiles knows he should have nothing to feel ashamed about, you can't control dreams and Derek is very… Derek, but he can't help feel like Diana has prodded at a very tender spot that he is not willing to admit to himself yet.

"It was in your file Stiles. Along with everything else about you."

"You have a file on me?" The horror Stiles feels at a record being kept on him is completely outweighed by the curiosity of what is in his file and how he can get a hold of it.

"We have files on everyone, they contain everything that's ever happened to you, every thought, every dream and all other possible timelines that could have happened to you if you had made a different choice." He watches as the Goddess begins to mash what's left of her waffles.

"I should have read your file before we met. Then I would have known about the Nogitsune, which we still need to talk about FYI, but I thought getting to know you personally would be better and less creepy. I did read all of your sex dreams though, five hundred and forty-eight dreams about Derek, second only to the one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine you've had about Lydia. And one I wish I had never read about Peter Hale."

"Please kill me." Stiles begins to gently hit his head against the surface of the table, his arms are stretched out in front of him. He feels Diana pat his hand a couple times before wrapping her hand around his wrist and rubbing small slow soothing circles with her thumb.

"I'm not going to tell anyone about the dreams, and trust me yours are not the most messed up I've ever read. Besides, who would I be to judge? Apollo is bisexual, well Po will try and have sex with almost anything really." She keeps rubbing the feather-light circles as she speaks, the action makes Stiles feel calm and relaxed like a warmth is spreading inside of him.

"With my family history who I am to judge what kinks you may have. I mean you have to have heard about Leda and the swan? Or even about Loki and Svaðilfari? Nothing you could possibly dream up will shock me. You're my friend, as you kids say now we're 'ride or die'." Stiles can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The warmth radiates up from the arm Diana is rubbing soothing circles on up into his chest. Stiles allows himself to fall into the feeling, it reminds him of the drugs they gave him when he had his wisdom teeth removed.

"That feels nice…" His voice is all dreamy as he rides the high.

"I'm glad, I thought if I did this one slower you wouldn't vomit again." The grip Diana has on his arm tightens just slightly.

"Wait… wait… are you giving me the warm fuzzy feelings?" He tries to pull his arm away but Diana's grip is too strong, his body feels weak and boneless.

"Stop wiggling! Just a few more seconds and we're done." Diana grits out as the hold she has on Stiles' arm becomes almost unbearably painful.

Stiles feels one last surge of warmth radiate through his body before Diana lets go. He pulls his arm quickly back, holding it close to his chest, before fixing the Goddess with a steely look.

"What the hell was that?" He spits out furiously, his eyes darting around the diner trying to see if anybody had noticed the scene.

"The gift of hand-eye coordination. You almost knocked yourself the other night with your own bat Stiles! This will give you a little helping hand that's all." Diana waves him off before returning to turning all her waffles into a soupy mush.

"You seriously need to stop. First off, we're in frickin' public! Secondly, I can't keep this up anymore! I need to tell Lydia. Keeping this a secret is having an effect on my personal life!" Stiles is breathing hard, he feels himself on the edge of becoming worked up. He holds eye contact with Diana for a moment before looking down at the table knife she is twirling between her fingers.

"We've discussed this Stiles, nobody can know. It's not negotiable, end of story." Stiles' eyes drift back to the knife as it catches the light.

"This is my life, Diana." He hates how he is pleading, sounding desperate but he didn't survive all the crap Beacon Hill threw at him just to see it destroyed.

"And it's my life too! You don't go around telling all and sundry about your little pack of puppies in the name of transparency now do you? I'm asking as your friend to respect my wishes." She stops spinning the knife around before placing it rather forcefully down on the table. Stiles is taken back for a moment.

"Friends?"

"Isn't that what we are?" She raises one perfect eyebrow at him.

"I don't know. I thought you would have seen me as some sort of project or like maybe a pet." The look on Diana's face makes Stiles feel ridiculous.

"You're not a pet, you're a person. And yes, we're friends. I haven't had a friend that I wasn't related to in over four thousand years. Consider yourself… blessed." Diana shoots him a big shit eating grin that Stiles returns with a tight sarcastic smile.

"Cute, very cute. You know you're more like a holy terror, raising hell. It can be a real sacrifice sometimes." Stiles feels the tension in his shoulders loosen a little as he jokes with Diana. He sits back in his seat feeling more like himself then he has all weekend.

"Look at you! That last was one was a bit weak but I'll still pay that." Stiles lets out an indignant snort before flicking a well-aimed piece of strawberry at the Goddess that she bats away with casual ease.

"Your girlfriend is finally off the phone." Stiles twists his body around to look over his shoulder to see Lydia pushing the diner door open, she has a smile across her face that every time he sees he falls just a little bit more in love with her.

Suddenly the diner becomes dimmer like the sun has disappeared behind thick dark clouds and the air crackles with an energy that reminds him of the electricity that Kira use to radiate. None of the other people in the diner seem to notice the change at all.

"Just remember Stiles, I have shown incredible patience today with yours and your girlfriend's little outbursts today. If this had been a couple of thousand years ago, I would have leveled this place."

A lump forms in Stiles' throat and his mouth goes dry. He can see the fire in Diana's eyes and it's a real reminder of the power she can wield. Stiles had become so comfortable around her that he almost forgot about the ultimate power thing she had going on.

"I… um… what do you even say to that?" Stiles stammers out trying to find the right response when Lydia slide back into the booth next to him pecking him on the cheek.

"What are you guys talking about?" She asks brightly, breaking the spell. Her attitude a complete contrast from her earlier behavior.

"I was just saying to Stiles that you should come over and meet all the girls at the Alpha Rho Tau house. They would just love to meet you!" Stiles feels like he's got whiplash for the complete 180s the girls have pulled in the space of a few minutes. He allows himself to zone out for a moment as Lydia and Diana chat about the sorority. Diana's request for privacy is understandable, Stiles thinks about if it was Scott or Lydia if they were in the position asking a new friend to keep their secrets.

"Stiles… Stiles… STILES!" Lydia shakes his arm violently snapping him out of his own head.

"Sorry." He says with a shake of his head.

"Are you ok?" Lydia slips her hand in his, entwining their fingers together.

"Yeah, yeah. Just daydreaming." Lydia gives him a concerned look but lets it slide for now.

"As I was saying, sorry I have to love you and leave you but I don't think you really want me third wheeling your Valentine's weekend together. Lydia, I'm sure you want to put Stiles' long fingers and oral fixation to good use." Diana smirks in the couple's direction as she slides out of the booth standing up.

"Seriously? You're a terrible friend." Stiles buries his face in his hands muffling his voice.

"I'm the best friend you could have boo." Diana leans and pecks Lydia on both her cheeks like they were old friends before whispering in her ear.

"You don't need to worry about him. I'll keep him out of trouble. Also I really, really, really don't want to touch his dick like ever."

Diana leans awkwardly over the table to pat Stiles on the head before throwing some money on the table and exiting the diner.

"I like her. I don't know why you didn't think we would get along." Stiles lets out a low groan in frustration.

Stiles has no recollection of how he ended up in the woods or why he was in the woods or even where he was but there is something about the place that he takes comfort in.

The woods remind him of the Beacon Hills, but minus the feelings of impending doom, terror and the likelihood of being eaten alive by a creature of the night.

The only light is coming from an unusually bright full moon and the blanket of stars across the sky but somehow he can clearly see where he is going. A warm summer breeze brushes against his cheek, which is odd for February in Virginia. He's been walking for a while, he's not sure how long but it feels like he's been out here forever, maybe he's always been here.

The only sounds come from the cicadas are chirping and the occasional owl hooting. Stiles begins to feel tired when he sees a rock up ahead that looks perfect to sit on. He lies down on the flat surface and stares at stars trying to remember all the different constellations Lydia taught him but the stars look different here. He's so wrapped up in the sky Stiles doesn't notice something move around him until he hears it.

"Woof!" Stiles sits bolt upright. "Woof! Woof!" He looks down to see a golden retriever sitting at his feet, tail wagging happily.

"Hello." He reaches out to pat the dog on the head, scratching it behind its ears. The dog barks happily, jumping up and turning around in circles. "Where did you come from?" The dog bounds just out of Stiles' reach before letting out yet another happy bark and bouncing off into the woods.

Stiles follows the after the retriever, the leaf litter crunching beneath his feet. The trees become thicker and he struggles to keep up with the pace of the dog as it races further ahead. Finally, the trees begin to thin out once again and Stiles is able to catch up with the energetic dog now sitting waiting patiently for him, tail wagging like crazy once again. Stiles crouches down in front of the dog to scratch it again behind its ear, running his fingers through its dark golden coat. The dog is happily attempting to lick his face when he notices the second dog running towards them. The black curly haired poodle jumps up and landing on Stiles' shoulder, throwing off his balance.

The poodle jumps on top of Stiles while playfully nipping at the golden retriever.

"Best day ever." Stiles murmurs to himself as the poodle begins tugging on his shirt sleeve, attempting to pull him along while the retriever nudges him from behind. He allows himself to be guided along by the two dogs, stumbling over raised tree roots and fallen branches.

As they move through the trees Stiles can hear a dull thudding noise that the dogs seem to be manoeuvring him towards. The sound grows louder and more dogs appear out of nowhere joining the other two in pushing Stiles along.

Stiles finally stumbles into a clearing where about fifteen dogs in total have gathered around him barking happily. He's facing the back of a woman in a pale green, knee-length tunic, hair pulled back with intricate braids and her feet bare. Her golden bow is raised at the target in front of her, arrow nocked and arm drawn back. A very distinctive tattoo runs down her spine. She releases the arrow and it lands dead in the center before turning around to face him.

"What are you all barking about- OH MY DOG! Stiles! What are you doing here? How did you even get here?" Stiles is met with Diana's shocked face.

"I don't know where I am, but there are dogs here so it can't be can't be that bad. And this guy brought me here." He bends down to rub the golden retriever behind his ears, while the dog sniffs and licks his face.

"Oh, Hufflepuff." Diana sighs out looking down at the golden retriever with a fond smile.

"You called your dog Hufflepuff?" Stiles scoops up Hufflepuff in his arms like a puppy the dog clearly is not.

"He's good at finding things." Diana pulls some treats out of her pocket and feeds them to the retriever.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Wow… Ok… I can't believe I'm more on top of old internet memes then you, but alright." Hufflepuff begins to become restless in Stiles' arms, he places the dog back on the ground to join the rest of the pack.

"Seriously Stiles, how did you get here? Not that it isn't nice to see you, but you really shouldn't be here." Diana props her bow against a nearby tree.

"I don't know, I was just here." Stiles furrows his brow in confusion.

"Think boo, what do you remember last?"

"I was in my room getting ready for bed and then… Am… Am I dreaming?" He looks down at his hands and starts counting his fingers. Diana grabs a hold of his hands to stop him.

"Yes and no. You're in a dream but it's not yours, it's mine."

Stiles feels paralysed. "That's not possible."

"Nogitsune are able to dream walk, I think this may have been a little gift left behind." Diana steps closer to him, face marred with concern.

"This can't be happening." Stiles can feel a panic attack coming on. The tightness in his chest, short of breath and an overwhelming sense of doom. "I think I'm having a panic attack, can you have panic attacks in dreams?" He sinks down to the forest floor, his hand clutched at his chest, balling up his tee shirt.

Diana quickly looks around before scooping up an inquisitive looking dachshund and pushing the dog into his arms.

"Hold Schnitzel for a bit, she'll make you feel better." Diana sits down on the ground with him, watching as Schnitzel licks Stiles' face. They sit in silence for a few moments.

"Feeling better?"

Stiles looks down at the dachshund's large expressive eyes. "A little."

"I think you might have some PTSD boo. Maybe you should talk to someone?"

"The only councilor I know who's aware of the supernatural threatened to kill me once to maintain the balance and then vanished into thin air." Stiles pulls Schnitzel closer to his chest.

"What about Scott or Lydia? Why don't you talk to them?"

"I can't burden with this."

"They're your friends, they won't see it as a burden."

"No! Just, no Diana."

"How about I come over tomorrow and we talk? Would you like to try that?" Stiles just nods his head in response, uncharacteristically quiet. "Come on, let's get you back to your own head shall we?"

Stiles slowly pushes himself off the ground while holding on to the dachshund close. Diana wraps an arm around Stiles' shoulder, guiding him through the trees.

"Have you been drinking the tea I gave you?" Diana asks as she finds her way on to a cleared trail running through the woods.

"Sometimes. I'm not really a tea drinker, I'm more Red Bull and coffee. Also, it made me need to pee a lot." Diana freezes at Stiles' comment, her arm tightens around his shoulders forcing him to stop walking.

"Do you know what I had to go through to get you that tea? It's not just any tea you can pick up at the damn supermarket Stiles! I had to call in favours from Morpheus and Hypnos, and I hate seeing Hypnos. His family is so creepy and you can only visit him in the Underworld. I despise going to the Underworld Stiles but I did it for you. So drink the fucking tea and have pleasant dreams!" Her statement is punctuated with a bark from Schnitzel.

"Ok, ok! I'll drink the creepy Underworld tea! So bossy." Stiles looks Diana in the eye as she gives him a brilliant smile.

"Excellent! Morpheus promised you would only ever have good dreams after you drank it." The continue walking down the path, the sound of gravel crunching beneath their feet.

"Wait! Have you been drugging me with tea to get me to sleep?"

"...Maybe… You didn't complain when I fed you and Scott Dionysus' wine to get him drunk!"

"WHAT?"

"What did you think that sangria punch was made from? Scott got pretty drunk on the stuff."

"I don't know, normal alcohol! You can't just go around drugging people Diana!"

"Sure I can! I can do what I want, I'm a Goddess, just watch me! Besides Scott had a good time, he probably hasn't been able to let loose like that since he was turned. So… you're welcome!"

Stiles is silently seething with quiet anger and tries to subtly take in his surroundings to take his mind off Diana's breach of trust. As they approach a crossroads he notices a directional sign pointing in different directions. Some of the location names make him raise his eyebrows. Valhalla 1000 km, Nirvana 1358 km, Avalon 550 km.

"Where are we?" They've stopped now in the middle of the crossroad and Diana has wandered off to the edge of the path and is now knocking against a tree trunk with her fist, one ear pressed against the tree.

Diana pulls back to look at Stiles more clearly. "We're in my dream genius." With a roll of her eyes, she is back to tapping on tree trunks.

Stiles shoots her a sarcastic smile and a thumbs up. "Gee whiz, thanks! I meant what are you dreaming about? What is this place meant to be?" He starts to absentmindedly scratch behind Schnitzel's ears.

"This is the forest at the base of Mount Olympus. It one of the places I'm happiest." She turns back to knocking on random trees, as Stiles takes a closer look at the sign.

He reads over all the names of the places the signs are pointing. "But none of these other places are real-"

"Found it!" Diana is standing in front of a tree with part of the trunk swung open like a door.

Schnitzel starts to wiggle in his arms in an attempt to escape, Stiles holds on tighter as he slowly walks towards the 'door' that is emitting a faint glow.

"I don't want to go through there! I have had enough of creepy magic trees to last a lifetime, so you can just find another way back."

"This is the only way, Stiles. Now go through the damn door or be stuck in my head forever." Diana power walks over, grabbing Stiles by the front of his shirt and dragging him towards the door. Stiles attempts to dig his feet in as the dog becomes more distressed and makes another attempt to escape Stiles' hold.

Diana lets go of Stiles' shirt suddenly causing him to stumble off balance falling forward, the Goddess places a firm hand in the middle of his back shoving him forcefully towards the door.

"Fine! I'll go, just stop pushing me around!" Stiles whines as he stares down the door looking into the void. Diana gives him a satisfied smile that reminds him just a little too much of the looks Lydia gives him when she gets her way after an argument.

"Wonderful. Now hand me my dog back, she can't come with you." She reaches out her hands and makes a grabby motion at Stiles. He hesitates to hand the dachshund back to her rightful owner.

"Can't she stay with me?" He looks down at the little dog, happily panting and wagging her tail.

"Schnitzel isn't real Stiles. She's a part of my dream." Stiles can't help but pout as he reluctantly hands the dog over.

Before stepping through the door Stiles turns back to look at Diana. "I'm still mad at you for drugging me and Scott and for giving me another 'gift' at the diner."

"Quit stalling. I'll call you tomorrow." She responds before shoving him through the door.

Stiles sits bolt upright in his bed gasping for air. Panting he looks around his dorm room, his roommate is still asleep and hasn't been woken by the noise. He picks up his phone to check the time, groaning at how early it is before locking the screen. The phone vibrates with a new message, he glances down to see a message from Diana.

' _Drink the freaking tea and go back to bed.'_


End file.
